Little Sister, Big Trouble
by Tigergirl
Summary: Sage is always so busy with his personal life and fighting the dynasty that he often doesn't have time for family. His youngest sister, Emily, talks him into spending the weekend with him. Everything goes to chaos when the warlords kidnap who they think is Sage's girlfriend. Dynasty beware. Big brother Sage is coming.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Little Sister, Big Trouble

**Author:** Tigergirl

**Rated:** T

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ronin Warriors, only Emily.

**Summary: **Sage is always so busy with his personal life and fighting the dynasty that he often doesn't have time for family. His youngest sister, Emily, talks him into spending the weekend with him. Everything goes to chaos when the warlords kidnap who they think is Sage's girlfriend. Dynasty beware. Big brother Sage is coming.

DEDICATED TO A VERY GOOD AND OLD FRIEND, FIRESTORM. She inspired me to write this fan fic. And, also, I would like to point out that the opening paragraph is from one of her old fan fics. She wrote the beginning in such a nice way that I wanted to use it, too. Hope you don't mind, girl.

CHAPTER ONE

Lately things had been pretty quiet in Toyama. There had been no attacks, not threats, and life seemed normal for everyone. Especially for Ryo Sanada, Rowen Hashiba, Sage Date, Cye Mouri, and Kento Rei Faun. The five boys have done their share of fighting. No, not against each other, nor from other boys. These five had fought valiantly to save the world from an evil being known as Talpa. They wore mystical armor that actually came from the tyrant, and there were four more who bear armor as well. The battles and wars had been tough, and the five of them had nearly died, but they had made it through, and were now enjoying the relaxing afternoon.

Sage stood in front of a mirror, checking his image over for about the hundredth time. He was looking forward to his date tonight. He was finally going to have the house all to himself. Cye and Kento were watching Ryo's soccer game, Rowan was camping out for the night to gaze at the stars, and Mia was going out of town for a few days.

"Sage?"

Sage turned toward the doorway with a grin. "Hi, Mia. Leaving for your trip?"

Mia nodded.

"I'm just going out the door. By the way, there's someone on the phone for you."

Sage smiled as he turned back around to grab up the phone. "Hello?" he said.

"Finally! Do you have any idea how long I've been trying to reach you?"

Sage shook his head with a chuckle.

"Hello, Emily. What can I do for you?" he asked as he sat down on his bed.

Sage had three wonderful sisters; Yayoi, Satsuki, and Emily. Emily was the youngest and closest to him. Some time ago, Emily had discovered the ronin secret and had become close to the ronin warriors.

"What you can do is cancel your date and come spend the weekend with me," she replied.

"We already spend a lot of time together, Emily," sighed Sage. "We'll hang out next weekend."

There was a pause on the other line. Sage thought he heard something shatter in the background. He sincerely hoped it wasn't the new vase their grandfather had just acquired.

"We haven't hung out in over a month. I'm dating Rowan, for God's sake!" she shouted.

The Halo bearer instantly sat up straight. There was no way his younger sister was dating his best friend. His blue-haired friend was going to be in for one long tongue-lashing when he got back from that camping trip. That is, if Sage didn't run out into the woods to him after hanging up the phone.

"You're lying," Sage bluffed. "Rowan would have told me."

Emily sighed.

"Maybe, maybe not. I certainly see him and the guys more than I do you. Who do you think made dinner last night?"

Well, that would certainly explain a lot. He thought the lasagna had tasted like it contained the secret Date family ingredient. He would have to remember to ask Cye later if his sister had revealed said secret. If so, he would be shifting his tongue-lashing to his sibling.

"Emily, I can't just can-," Sage started.

"The Hell you can't!" Emily exclaimed.

Sage's eyes got wide. He sincerely hoped his sister was outside and on her cell phone. He couldn't imagine her getting away with using such language under the same roof as their mother, father, sisters, and grandfather. Sage started to speak again when his sister cut him off.

"You go out on a date practically every night with a different girl. How much more time are we going to have to hang out before you move away or I graduate?"

For that, Sage did not have an answer. Ever since Emily had mentioned how long it had been since they hung out, he realized she was right. He needed to start being a better older brother.

"Can you give me half an hour to call Hana and apologize?" Sage said.

He could practically feel Emily's smile from the other line.

"You're awesome, Sage. Love you, big brother."

Sage smiled while shaking his head.

"Love you too, little sister."

/…./

Talpa was still away discussing something with Badamon. Dais, Cale and Sekhmet stood in the throne room waiting to see why Talpa had summoned them. None of them had a clue as to why they had been summoned.

Suddenly, Talpa reappeared and they stood at attention. Talpa was grinning which put them a little off ease.

"You summoned us, Master?" Cale asked.

"Yes, my warlords. Soon, very soon, I will have the very thing that will bring the Ronin Warriors to their knees," Talpa said as his eyes flashed red.

"Forgive me, Master, but what is this that will bring the Ronins down?"

Sekhmet and Dais braced themselves for the torture Cale was about to be put through. But, surprisingly, Talpa continued smiling.

"Those foolish Ronins have let another mortal into their lives. Halo is on his way now to see her. Wait until she's alone to grab her. I want her brought to me. Do not come back without her," he ordered.

Dais and Sekhmet vanished from sight. Cale smirked before vanishing too. It would be his pleasure to mentally and emotionally torture Halo into believing it was his fault the girl was taken.

/…/

Sage pulled up in front of the house in his gray Camaro. Emily was sitting on the front porch with a grin stretching from ear to ear. He shut the engine off and climbed out as Emily jogged down the porch steps.

Sage put his arms up in time for Emily to jump into them. They hugged for a brief moment before Sage held her an arm's length away.

"Well, well, the great Sage Date still keeps his word, I see," Emily chuckled.

Sage leaned forward to kiss his sister on the cheek.

"I had forgotten how much I missed that sense of humor."

Emily's smile remained as she moved in to give her brother another big hug. God knows she had missed seeing her brother. He was always so busy with his personal life and fighting to save the

world that she felt like she been in the backseat for a while.

"So what are we going to do?" Emily asked eagerly.

"How's movie and a dinner sound?" Sage asked.

Emily reached up to give her brother a quick peck on his nose. He wrinkled his nose at her antics but forgave her as she walked around to the other side of the Camaro and climbed in.

"Let's go! The night is young, Sage," Emily said.

Sage rolled his eyes but climbed back into the driver's seat. "And so are you."

Unknown to the two siblings, as Sage's Camaro pulled out of the driveway, three figures stood hidden in the shadows watching and waiting.

END OF CHAPTER ONE


	2. Chapter 2

**Vampire Ronin:** Thanks for the wonderful review! I've always been confused about the 'e' vs. 'a' for Rowen's name for a long time. I knew a Rowan with the 'a'. As for the whole sister thing, I've always given Sage a third sister and it will all come together in the sequel (this story is technically already done; I just want to get more reviews per chapter).

**LittleMay:** Thank you! Since the story is already completed, I will certainly be updating quite often until the end. Actually already have the sequel started.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the next chapter of "Little Sister, Big Trouble."

CHAPTER TWO

Emily took in a big breath and let it out. Breathing was always one of the most important components to meditating.

"Good job, Emily. Empty your mind of everything stressful in your life and focus on the silence around you."

Sage and Emily were sitting in the middle of the Date family dojo meditating. When Emily was younger, Sage had taken her to the dojo at the crack of dawn every morning to train with her. She had only just recently begun taking the sessions more seriously. Her favorite was meditating because of how they did it.

The two siblings sat back to back. Doing this helped them regulate their breathing and steady their heartbeat. It made them feel like two pieces of a whole.

"Push the negative energy out. Breathe in the positive energy," Sage whispered quietly.

Suddenly, the silence was broken by the irritating ring of a cell phone. Both pairs of eyes popped open, one of them showing irritation.

"If I hear your phone ring one more time, I am going to_ flush it_ down the toilet," Emily warned her brother.

Sage turned his head towards her while ignoring the familiar ringtone.

"You wouldn't dare."

Emily turned her head so she could see her brother.

"How much are you willing to bet?" she asked.

Sage was up and across the room before Emily could blink. She chuckled quietly. Sage knew better than to doubt her. When she said she was going to do something, she always followed through.

I learned that the hard way with my bedroom door, thought Sage.

He quickly texted a short reply to Cye before silencing his phone. He did not care to go fishing for his phone. As he walked back over to his sister who was now doing stretches, he remembered how much fun last night had been. They had eaten at a nice restaurant and watched the newest comedy movie out in the theatres.

Since it had been late when they left the movies, the two had stayed at the dojo for the night.

Sage remembered well the last time they had stayed the night at the dojo. They had made a tent out of sheets and pillows in one of the small rooms in the back. Just for the fun of it, the two had done that exact thing last night. It had been a blast.

But, thought Sage as Emily bent backwards until her hands lay flat on the floor, I can't get over that weird feeling from last night.

"Everything okay, Sage?" Emily asked from her upside down position.

"Is everything okay with you?" Sage asked back. Emily nodded. Sage smiled. "Then I'm fine."

Emily straightened herself back up and wobbled a little bit unbalanced, but Sage steadied her with a gentle grab of her elbow.

"What's next?" Emily asked.

"I thought we would go walking around town and through the park," Sage suggested.

"I'd like that," Emily said. "Can we go up the old trail like we used to?"

"Whatever you want, Emily. It's your weekend," Sage smiled.

Again, Emily embraced her brother. She buried her face in his chest as he returned the hug.

"You're the greatest brother," she mumbled into his chest.

/…/

"Anyone else getting sick from this display?" Cale mumbled.

The three warriors were standing in the shadows near one of the dojo's windows. Sekhmet had wanted to snatch the girl last night, but Dais and Cale had disagreed. She had been too close to Halo. The only time she had been away from him was when she woke up in the middle of the night shivering.

The girl had padded down the hallway, down the stairs, and out to Halo's car. She had open the trunk of the car and pulled out a thick blanket. Rather than allow Sekhmet close enough to snatch her, Cale had cloaked himself in the darkness to get close enough to spook her. She had paused beside the car and looked almost directly at him.

The thrill of stalking his prey had exhilarated him. He looked forward to spooking her like a wolf hunting a scared deer.

"Agreed," Dais said. "How much longer is Halo going to be around her?"

Cale shrugged.

"Who cares? We stay until she's alone," he said.

Sekhmet glared at Halo through the window. "That better be soon."

/…/

"You're cheating!" Sage shouted.

The pair had already walked through the park and started through downtown. Emily had spotted a rock climbing place and dragged him immediately inside. It was another activity they had done a couple of summers ago when their family had visited the States.

Emily paused where she was to look down at her brother. "I'm just a faster and better climber!"

Sage mock glared at her as she turned back upward and continued to climb. He struggled to catch up since Emily was practically already to the top. He paused when he heard a familiar ringtone from above. Sage frowned at what he saw when he looked up again.

Emily had shifted her body so she was leaning on the wall and had her phone out texting.

"You can answer a text, but I can't?" Sage called up to her.

Emily shook her head.

"Not unless you want an excuse for me to flush it."

Sage still couldn't decide if he should risk turning the sound back on for his phone. His sister had done some gutsy things in her life, but he wasn't quite sure what to think about her actually flushing his cell phone.

The loud ringing of a bell broke him out of his thoughts. Sage grumbled under his breath as he heard his sister cheer happily in celebration as she came back down. She stopped next to him with a large grin on her face.

"Are you having fun, Sage?" she asked.

Looking his sister in the face, he could tell she was asking him for an honest answer. This time, he reached out to pull her into a loose hug.

"I'm having a great time, Em. Thanks for reminding me of how much fun I've been missing out on," Sage said in a clear voice.

Emily giggled.

"I try to do that every once in a while. After all, I'm growing up fast and soon I'll be out in the world," she said, leaning in close. "_And finding a guy._"

Sage narrowed his gaze.

"And I'll be right there beside you scaring them all away."

Emily snorted.

"Of that, I have no doubt. No man would dare come within a ten foot radius of me with you near me."

Emily patted Sage on the shoulder before continuing down to the ground. She wasn't at all surprised when she glanced up to see her brother climbing upwards. He had never been one to go halfway with something.

She unhooked her harness and reattached the cable to the wall. She loosened the harness and took it off. Emily jogged down the steps to her backpack, but stopped short of it. Someone had moved her backpack and it was zipped up from a different side.

There was hardly anyone else in the area with the exception of a few workers and her brother.

Why would someone move my bag, Emily pondered.

She bent down and unzipped her backpack. Her first thought was someone had stolen something from her but a quick search of her backpack revealed that everything was still there. When she picked up her backpack, a black rose dropped to the ground. She frowned as she picked it up.

The flower didn't appear to be dead; in fact, it looked quite healthy. She smiled awkwardly. It was a nice flower and had no thorns, but she wondered what the color's symbolism was. Flipping out her phone, she texted a message to Kento.

**Hey Ken. What does a black flower mean?**

She glanced over her shoulder to gaze up at her brother. He wasn't quite at the top, but if he pushed off on his right foot and reached out with his left hand, he would make it for sure. Emily felt her cell phone vibrate in her hand. The screen read New Message.

**Black flowers typically mean mystery. Hey, do you know where Sage is?**

Emily's thumbs rapidly moved across the keyboard to type her response.

**He is ALL mine for the weekend. You guys can have him back tomorrow afternoon.**

Emily didn't even turn her head around when her brother finally reached the top and hit the buzzer. She tried to decide what to do with the rose.

"Emily!" Sage called.

She turned back around and nearly fell backwards laughing. Her brother had made it to the bottom. However, somehow he had tangled up the harness.

"You're lucky you are so cute," Emily murmured before going to her brother's rescue.

"I told you you shouldn't have left the flower."

"Halo won't pick up on it and neither will the girl."

"We should just _take_ her. The other ronins aren't nearby. It's obvious Halo wouldn't risk trying anything if we snatched her."

A glance at the two blondes as they laughed while walking over to retrieve their things.

"Just wait a little longer. Halo will leave her soon. Then we'll have our chance."

Almost as if sensing their presence, Emily shivered and pulled her jacket close.

/…/

Rowen trudged up the driveway with his sleeping bag under one arm and a bag slung over his shoulder. He couldn't believe the sky had become cloudy during the most opportune time to see the stars. He continued grumbling under his breath as he stomped up the porch stairs and into the house.

Kento was sitting on the floor with a video game controller in his hand. He was pushing the keys crazily in an attempt to move his character across the screen. Based on the smells emanating from the kitchen, Rowen could only assume that meant Cye was fixing dinner.

"Rowen's back, Cye!" Kento shouted while keeping his gaze on the television screen.

Rowen dropped his things next to the couch as Cye popped his head out.

"Oh, good. Then I don't have to worry about Kento eating all of the dinner," Cye said.

Rowen frowned.

"What about Ryo and Sage?"

"Ryo has a late soccer game and won't be home until late. I don't know about Sage," Cye replied.

"Sage is hanging with Emily for the weekend."

Cye and Rowen both turned their heads to Kento who had paused the game to join the conversation.

"Sage is with Emily?" Cye asked.

"Emily is with Sage?" Rowen added.

Kento cracked a grin. He hadn't said something like that in a while. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time the younger female had spent time with her brother.

"Yeah. I got a text from Emily earlier." Kento chuckled. "Sounded like she was having a lot of fun."

"What about Sage?" Rowen asked.

"When I called earlier to ask Emily a question, I could hear Sage in the background. It sounded like he was having fun," Kento answered.

Cye nodded with a smile. "That's good. He should spend more time with her."

Rowen glanced away. He had mixed feelings about Sage spending more time with Emily, but he wasn't about to voice those thoughts.

"That's good for Sage," he mumbled.

END OF CHAPTER TWO

**Note**: Keep up the reviews, people. I live for reviews!


	3. Chapter 3

**LittleMay: **It does work out nicely when I have all the chapters already done. All I have to do is add in comments to my reviewers and double check spelling of names and the such. Thanks!

**LdySubaru:** This is all so true. Thank you and I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

**Vampire Ronin:** As far as I know, he wasn't from New York. I've got a little bit of a writer's block on the sequel, but it's because I already have the story playing out in my mind down into the future chapters and I'm only on chapter 2.

To all my readers: As you read through this chapter, you're going to get the impression that something big will be happening soon. Keep reading on to find out what it is.

CHAPTER THREE

_The sky was pitch black and void of all stars. Emily stood in the middle of the forest with her gaze on the sky. Her brother and the other ronins were armoring up and fighting against some evil she couldn't see._

_There were sparks of light falling down from each of the armors. Emily reached up her hand to catch some of the beams in her open palm. When she brought it back down, she noticed her hand was flashing the five colors of the ronin armors._

_Suddenly, everything shifted and Emily was staring down at her reflection in a lake. She gasped. Her hair was parted from her face and the kanji for Spirit was glowing green on the middle of her forehead._

"_That…that's impossible," she whispered._

_Without warning, Emily felt an electrical shock course through her body. She fell hard against a tree and looked up to see the three warlords. Their faces were hidden by shadows, but she recognized the armors from having seen their fights with the ronins._

_The Warlord of Darkness raised his nodachi and aimed it at her. He lunged at her and she screamed as she raised her arms up in defense._

"_SAGE!"_

/…/

Emily's eyes snapped open as she jerked awake. Her heart was beating rapidly and she tried to calm her breathing down. Emily slowly sat up while taking deep breaths. She reached over to the nightstand to pick up the clock. It read 01:30AM in a bright blue light.

She groaned. Thanks to the nightmare, she was wide awake now. She pushed the bedcovers off in annoyance before climbing to her feet. She snatched up a jacket and slipped her shoes on. Emily walked across the room to her brother who had fallen fast asleep in an armchair.

They had stayed up late reminiscing about childhood memories and Sage had the misfortune of falling asleep on the armchair he had been sitting in. She smiled softly as she pulled a blanket out and draped it over him.

Emily made sure to carefully close the door behind her so she didn't wake her brother. She jogged down the stairs, through the dojo hallways and to the outside. A cool blast of wind caused her to smile.

She followed a path out to the middle of a garden where there was a large space for training. Emily did a few stretches before further warming up with some flips.

She started with a cartwheel that changed into a backflip before finishing with tucking her legs and landing perfectly on her feet.

Too bad I hate the cheer squad at school. I would make a great member for the team, thought Emily.

After performing a few more flips, she turned the heat up and started working out. To any onlookers, it would have appeared as though she were fighting an invisible enemy. In her mind, she was fighting a faceless man.

She forced him to throw his head back with a punch to his face then shifted her body and kicked him in the back of the knees. This caused him to fall hard on his back.

As she continued to work out all the stress leftover from the nightmare, she was unaware of her audience.

"I wonder if Halo ever sees this side of her," Cale murmured.

The three of them had separated with Dais and Sekhmet keeping an eye on the other ronins. They had decided that if it appeared that the other ronins decided to join the two blondes then they would have to act quickly to snatch the girl before the others could come to Halo's aid.

Silently, Cale moved closer to get a better look. The girl shifted from fast, quick movements to more fluid movements that were used to calm the mind and body.

It would be so easy to take her now, Cale thought.

For a moment, he got within snatching distance of the mortal. He moved around behind her as she continued to train. After sweeping the legs out from under her invisible opponent, Emily froze.

/_Be careful, child._/

The wind had shifted behind her and now she felt like she wasn't alone anymore. In fact, she could have sworn she had just heard a voice whispering to her.

For a fleeting moment, Emily wandered if her brother had woken and come outside. However, she knew deep down it was something else. She just didn't know what.

Quietly, Emily let out the breath she had been holding and stood up straight. She picked up her jacket which had come off sometime during her work-out. Glancing at her watch, she wasn't surprised to see she had been training for well over an hour.

/_Go back inside._/

Emily shook her head as she walked down the path and back to the dojo. The exhaustion was starting to set in. Now she was hearing voices in her head.

No longer hidden by his shadows, Cale followed very closely but silently behind her. Such a small girl, she was. He could easily break her arm without even calling his subarmor.

Emily paused at the dojo doors. The voice inside her head was telling her to go back inside but her instincts were telling her to turn around and face whatever imaginary presence was nearby.

**Your temper always gets the best of you**. Like she hadn't heard her brother say that a thousand times. Choosing to listen to her brother's wise words, Emily slid open the door and went back inside, unknowingly slamming the door in the face of her brother's rival.

/…/

"Why won't you _tell_ me?"

Sage shot his sister a sideways glance and smiled. Emily glared at him with a grumble as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I told you it was a surprise, Em," Sage reminded her.

Emily turned up the heat on her glare.

"Surprises are for your _dates_, Sage. Not your baby sister," Emily mumbled.

"That was before my baby sister flushed my phone down to the sewer system of Toyama."

Emily turned her face away to hide the growing smile. Considering whose name she had seen on the Caller ID, she didn't feel all that bad about flushing the phone.

"I never liked _her_."

Sage snorted.

"There was no need to flush my phone. I'm not _dating_ Skyla. She was calling to ask about Rowen." Emily made a face. "She wants a date with _him_."

Silence filled the car as Emily slumped against the car door. She stared at the scenery as it passed by quickly. Sage lightly put his foot on the brakes as the light went red.

He shot his sister a quick look, but then snapped his head all the way to the side.

"Did you see that?" he asked.

Emily turned her head back around to face him and tilted it to the side with her eyebrows raised.

"See what, Sage?" she asked.

Looking over his sister's shoulder, he saw that there was nothing but the trees behind her. He could have sworn he had seen someone standing there only a moment ago. He was brought out of his thoughts when Emily smacked him in the arm with the back of her hand.

"The light's green."

The car started moving again and Sage shifted his gaze back to the road. Emily stared at her brother confused.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You're lying."

"It was nothing."

Emily scrunched up her nose. She shifted her body to face the road while re-crossing her arms over her chest.

"Ryo kissed me at the family picnic," she said point blank.

"WHAT?"

/…/

Ryo groaned. As soon as Sage and Emily had arrived at the house, Sage had come looking for him. He had been chased down the stairs, around the furniture in the living room, and out the back kitchen door. Now he was sitting high up in a tree in the backyard.

"I want a straight answer, Ryo!" Sage shouted.

Ryo's gaze fell down to spot Sage at the base of the tree.

"I'd like to live to see another day, thanks!" Ryo shouted back down to him.

If anything else, this got Sage even madder.

"You _did_ kiss her!"

Ryo sighed as he covered his eyes with hands. What was Emily thinking when she had blurted that lovely little tidbit of information out at her brother? At least, if she had to tell him, she should have seen fit to mention it was part of a Truth or Dare game.

He noticed the other three ronins and Emily watching from the kitchen window. He pointed his finger at Emily and gave her the stink eye. She smiled slyly and waved before latching her arms onto Kento who tried shaking her off.

Forget Talpa and the dynasty. Sage's sister is the one who's going to get us all killed, Ryo thought.

"You better come down, Wildfire!" Sage hollered.

"I'm not coming down anytime soon and you can't make me!"

Sage summoned his subarmor and crouched down. Ryo had just enough time to jump from the tree to another tree, summoning his subarmor in mid-air.

Meanwhile, the boys and Emily were watching from the house with great interest.

"On a scale of one to ten, how mad do you think Sage is?" Kento asked, still trying to shake Emily off.

"9." Cye.

"13." Rowen.

"4." Emily.

Three pairs of eyes snapped to the fourth. "Who are you kidding?" Emily flashed them a grin and peace sign.

"Don't worry about Sage…or Ryo, for that matter. Sage is only half mad at Ryo and Ryo can dart pretty quickly between the trees. If anything else, they're getting a good workout," Emily promised.

She let go of Kento in favor of leaving the kitchen. "But if they don't come down in half an hour, you might want to send someone out to break them up."

END OF CHAPTER THREE

**Keep up the reviews, everyone!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Vampire Ronin: **Glad you're enjoying the story. Oh, you know nothing bad will happen to Ryo. At least not when Sage is involved.

**LdySubaru:** I'm happy to have readers that are thoroughly enjoying my stories. Always planning to stay golden.

**LittleMay:** And more, more, more, you shall get!

**HERE'S A SPECIAL FOR EVERYONE. NOT ONE, BUT TWO NEW CHAPTERS POSTED.**

CHAPTER FOUR

The University was packed full of people coming in and out of buildings as they went from class to class. A blue car pulled up in front of the library and out climbed Emily. She ducked her head back in the car and thanked Rowen for the ride.

"Why did you need to come to the University?" Rowen asked.

"I wanted to look at some books before my big camping trip tonight," she answered.

"Do you need a ride later?"

Emily shook her head. She explained to him that she planned to take the bus just off the University campus to the campgrounds. When asked about her camping gear, she added that her pals were going to grab it from the house for her.

"I told them if I don't show up, either the bus broke down or an emergency came up," Emily said.

"How long will you all be out there, Em?" Rowen replied.

"About a week." Smile. "Cool. I hope you have fun." A wink. "I will. Thanks again for the ride."

Emily reached across the passenger seat to place a light kiss on Rowen's cheek. She closed the door behind her and waved goodbye as Rowen drove off. Turning back around, Emily adjusted the shoulder strap of her backpack and jogged up the stairs to the front doors of the University library.

Once inside, Emily took out Rowen's books from her bag to place in the return box. It had been easy to talk Rowen into giving her a ride since he had books that needed returning. Emily had said her goodbyes to everyone and given her brother a long hug that gave Ryo enough time to zip into the house.

She waved to the librarian assistant who nodded his head to her. She walked across the lobby to the elevator which she took to the fourth floor. It didn't take long for Emily to locate the books she wanted to look at. She sat down on the floor where she could lean her back against the wall while she looked at the books.

Emily pulled her notebook out of her backpack and started writing notes. She focused intently on the subject matter and loss track of time until her phone vibrated in her pocket. Reaching into her pocket, she struggled to pull her phone out. When she tapped her power button, it lit up to reveal the time as close to six.

Emily closed up all the books and set them on a cart on her way to the elevator. She let out a

short yawn on the ride down. She waved to the library assistant again on her way out the front doors. She jogged down the stairs and across the hall.

Her phone vibrated in the backpack pocket that lay against her chest. She slipped it out and slid the phone to the unlock position.

**From: Sage**

**Have a safe camping trip. Call when you're on the way home.**

Emily shook her head with a chuckle while walking down the sidewalk. Her brother always had perfect timing. She typed out a text back to him as she weaved around groups of students and managed not to bump into anyone. She also managed to miss the three shadows following her. They kept a safe distance from her while she was still among people.

**Will do. Enjoy your date and PLEASE don't kill Ryo.**

Emily laughed out loud as a picture text came in. Ryo was sitting at the kitchen table and Sage was standing behind him holding him in a loose headlock. Both had wide grins on their faces. She shook her head again as she put away her phone.

/_Keep away from the shadows. Stay near the streetlights._/

Emily came to an abrupt halt beside a small group of friends that were sitting on a bench outside the student union. She could have sworn she had heard the voice from the dojo again. This time, it sounded louder and clearer than from before.

"Hey, kid. You okay?" one of the guys asked.

"I'm fine," she lied.

Emily was starting to reconsider her decision to go camping with her friends. She couldn't shake the feeling that she should just go home. After a few quiet minutes of just standing there, Emily took her phone back out.

**To: Saul**

**Decision reversed. Not going on trip. Just bring my stuff to my brother's place when you get back in.**

She was thankful that there were lots of students still around as she made it safely to the bus stop. She jogged up to the stop just as the bus was arriving. Emily jogged up the steps and flashed her bus pass at the driver.

Emily found a seat by the window where she flopped down with a sigh. She startled a little bit when she saw a green blur go by the trees near the bus stop. The bus pulled away with a small jerk that rocked the passengers.

Emily tried not to think about it as she chose to use the wait time to listen to music on her iPod. She kept her gaze away from the window in case she started seeing things again.

I think I need to go see Dr. Smythe about this. Maybe it's a severe case of allergies or something, Emily said to herself.

The bus stopped a few times in town before making its way up the hill and out of town. The next bus stop would put her near the family house. Thank goodness her older sister and grandfather were home for the evening.

When the bus stopped, Emily put her iPod away in her backpack and stood. She stepped off the bus and crossed in the front of the bright lights of the bus. Emily started walking along a paved sidewalk but paused for a moment to take a flashlight out of her backpack.

She clicked it on but kept the light on the ground so she wouldn't blind anyone. As she breathed in the fresh air and walked along the path, she forgot about all her worries. It wasn't until she came to an open park area that she was reminded of the paranoia and feeling of being followed.

Without warning, something roughly knocked the flashlight out of her hand. She whipped around and looked around frantically, but she couldn't see anyone. Emily made sure to step slowly towards the fallen flash light. Instead of bending down to get it, she hooked her foot under it and flicked her foot up to flip the light up in the air to her hands.

Emily flashed the light around her with a focused gaze on the darkest areas around her.

"Who's there?" she called. No answer.

Looking around once more, Emily turned away back to the path.

"Have you lost your way?"

Emily turned fully around and her flashlight fell on Cale. A sudden feeling of realization hit her hard. She knew quite well who stood in front of her at this very moment; the star-crossed scar over his eye gave him away. Her brother had talked about his armored polar opposite so much that she was completely sure this was the Warlord of Darkness.

But when in doubt, Emily thought, play dumb, especially when the enemy is in "normal" clothing.

She lowered her flashlight a little so it wasn't blinding him since he had squinted a little. She shook her head.

"I'm not lost. I know where I'm going," Emily replied in a calm, steady voice.

Cale's smile strongly reminded her of a wolf. Did that mean she was playing the part of Little

Red Riding Hood?

"You should come with me. It's not safe to be out alone at night," Cale cautioned her.

Keeping a steady gaze on the warlord, Emily detected at least one other person approaching her slowly from behind. She tried to not give away that she knew he was there.

"No, thank you. I can take care of myself," Emily said.

Cale let out a low chuckle that sent shivers up her back. She had never wished so hard that her brother was with her. The scary part was that she only knew about half of what the warlords were capable of doing.

"That wasn't a request, little one."

Emily's eyes narrowed and flashed with anger.

"I'm not going _anywhere_ with **you**," Emily spat.

Hearing the person behind her rush at her, Emily flashed the light in Cale's eyes, blinding him instantly. Then she ducked low, tripping up the person behind her, into Cale. Shutting off the light, Emily dashed into the nearby woods.

Emily darted between the trees, around bushes, and towards the direction of Mia's house. She was very thankful that the park was a midway point between her family's house and Mia's house. She wasn't about to drive them towards her semi-defenseless family. She only hoped she could reach the ronins before they caught up with her.

Hearing voices approaching her fast, Emily halted and shot up a tree. She camouflaged herself high in the tree. She tied up her hair and hid it under a hat she pulled from her backpack. Emily calmed her breathing down and tried to stay as quiet as possible.

She saw Cale and another man at the base of the tree. They were looking around for her in their subarmor now.

Green hair? He must be Sekhmet. I better be extra careful. Cye said he's a danger with his poison, Emily thought.

While she waited for them to leave, Emily began formulating a plan in her mind. It was two miles to the house. She couldn't travel by the trees because they would be able to track her movement by the branches breaking and leaves falling. Plus, Emily couldn't jump from tree to tree as easily as the ronins.

She waited until they darted another direction before slowly climbing down the tree. Emily could hear the two shouting to each other to the east. The house was in the northeast. She would have to travel quickly and carefully.

Emily kept low to the ground as she ran to the north. Soon as she got to the northern road, she could run up the road to the house. So many thoughts were racing through her mind.

Why were they after her? Were they going to use her to lure her brother out into a trap? What would they do _if_ they caught her?

Emily slid to a stop and jerked around a tree when she heard a tree twig snap. She crouched down before sneaking her head slowly around the tree. Sekhmet was standing there looking around. She turned back around to hide behind the tree until she heard him walk away.

The young blonde came back around the tree and continued on her path towards the road. It didn't take her long to reach the road. She bent over to catch her breath and dropped her backpack to the ground. Suddenly, she snapped back up when she heard running nearby in the woods behind her. Knowing she wouldn't have enough time to get up to the house, Emily whipped out her phone and started texting as fast as her thumbs would go.

**To Sage:**

**SOS 1 mi W from u. Wa…**CLUNK.

Emily reared back violently as her phone was knocked from her hands and a hand clamped over her mouth and nose. She tried to fight her attacker off but she couldn't tear the hand away from her mouth. The attacker was holding a soaked cloth over her mouth and nose. The smell was nauseating.

"You won't make it to Halo," whispered a cruel voice in her ear.

Her strength was being sapped fast, but using that last little bit she squeezed an arm out from under the arm holding her close to the attacker. She reached back and viciously scratched her attacker in the face.

The unexpected attack caused him to release her. Emily wasn't prepared for the sudden weight loss and wasn't able to stop herself from falling. She smacked her head hard on the pavement and lost consciousness.

END OF CHAPTER FOUR


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Rowen groaned as consciousness came to him. He blinked tiredly at the clock on his bed stand. It read 07:30A.M. Rowen let out another, more agonizing groan as he buried his face into his pillow.

"Why am I awake?" he grumbled.

The bathroom door opened and out walked a wide awake Sage.

"Are you planning to sleep all day, Ro?" Sage asked with a grin.

He walked over to his dresser to retrieve his wallet and keys. Rowen flopped over on the bed to look at his best friend without having to lift his head.

"Why are you up so early, mate?" Rowen said.

"I have to drive into town to get groceries for Cye before my date at Noon with Jazmyn. And I made a promise to Ryo to be back in the evening to train," Sage explained. "What are you going to do today?"

Rowen rolled onto his side and pulled the covers over his head.

"I plan to sleep, Sage."

Sage rolled his eyes as he left the room. Once Sage was gone, Rowen took the covers off his face. He might as well sleep the whole week away. His cloudy weekend had ruined his plans for stargazing and now he couldn't work on his dream interpreting paper with his main test subject camping out for the entire week with friends.

/…/

Cye scrubbed hard. He had woken up after Kento and found Mia's kitchen in disarray from the former attempting to make pancakes. He would have made Kento clean up the mess, but the man had been covered with batter from head to toe.

Cye had immediately steered him towards the stairs to go clean the batter off before it hardened and could make things worse.

/…/

White Blaze growled softly as Ryo scrubbed his fur with a sponge and soap.

"I'm sorry, Blaze. I know Emily usually gives you a bath, but she's on that camping trip," Ryo apologized.

White Blaze let out a mournful groan before lying down in the mud puddle that had formed under him. Now it was Ryo's turn to let out a mournful groan.

"How does Emily do this?" he said.

Grumbling under his breath, Ryo picked up the hose and proceeded to wash off the mud from Blaze's fur. It took a bit of convincing to get White Blaze to stand back up. Ryo could tell the tiger was just barely tolerating the bath.

I have _got_ to ask that girl how she manages to give him a bath with no trouble, Ryo thought.

White Blaze continued whining sadly. This caused Ryo to become concerned. While scrubbing the mud out with one hand, Ryo reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. He pressed three on his speed dial and held his phone up to his ear.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Click. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sage. I have a question for you," Ryo said.

Pause. "I'm busy at the moment, Ryo."

"It'll only take a minute."

Pause. Sigh. "What's your question?"

"I know you've usually been around while Emily gives White Blaze bath. Does he usually make much of a fuss?" Ryo asked.

There was a brief moment of silence from the other side of the line. Ryo could practically hear the gears turning in Sage's head while he thought of his answer.

"Quite the opposite. He really enjoys it when she gives him a bath. I've never seen him so much as growl at her." Pause. "Why do you ask?"

"He's making a lot of fuss today. I guess maybe he just misses Emily," Ryo answered.

Sage made an hmm sound. "Probably. Did you need anything else?"

Ryo answered negative and thanked Sage for his insight. He hung up the phone and went back to what he was doing.

/…/

Kento shook the water out of his hair and rubbed at it with an orange towel. He hadn't meant to make such a mess in the kitchen. Thankfully, he knew Cye wasn't really as angry as he had appeared when he had entered the room.

Kento ran a quick brush through his hair before exiting the bathroom. He scooped up dirty clothes on his side of the room he shared with Cye. He dumped the load into his laundry basket and closed the basket.

He was looking forward to an awesome day of fun. He planned to throw Rowen out of his bed and drag the man down to a special showing at the planetarium. Boy, would Rowen be surprised! If it hadn't been for Emily's school raffle, he would have never won the tickets.

He really loved having the younger girl around. Kento liked Sage's sisters, but he liked Emily the most. She was the only one that could give him a decent battle on the video game downstairs. She had even beaten his high score in a few games.

Like all the others, Kento knew it was going to be a long week while Emily was camping with friends. It was all any of them had on their mind. Emily had become such a constant presence around the house that it would feel weird having her gone for so long.

"Kento, how in the world did you get batter underneath the kitchen table?" shouted Cye from downstairs.

With the bedroom door already cracked open, Kento turned his head and shouted back, "Sorry!"

Grabbing up the planetarium tickets from underneath his pillow, he stuffed them in his pocket on his way out the door.

Cye was coming up the stairs when he spotted his best friend entering Sage and Rowen's room with a bucket of water in his hands. The warrior of water wisely chose to move over to the left side of the stairwell in preparation of the hurricane that was sure to come blowing down it in just a few moments.

4…3…2…1….SLOSH! "Kento!"

/…/

In a damp and dark dungeon, Emily lay on the floor unconscious with a horrible gash above her right eye. Footsteps sounded in the hallway down and around the corner. In a few seconds, a middle-aged woman appeared at the dungeon doors with a tray in her hands. While balancing the

tray in one hand, the woman unlocked the door and stepped inside.

She approached Emily and crouched down to lay the covered food on the floor beside her. Seeing the fresh blood on the young girl's forehead, the woman drew a cloth out of her pocket to dab at the fresh blood.

"Mazushí ko [Poor child]," she whispered.

Emily let out a painful groan, but otherwise showed no signs of waking. The woman smoothed her hair back and patted her gently on the head.

"Rei wa anata to issho kamo shiremasen [May the spirits be with you]."

The woman stood and exited the dungeon cell. She stared sadly at the young girl before leaving the dungeons. Moments after the woman had left, Emily groaned again and her eyes blinked rapidly before slowly opening.

"_Damn_, my head," Emily groaned.

She glanced about the room without lifting her head or sitting up. She simply didn't have the strength to be able to. In fact, she was surprised to even be awake. A realization slowly set in as to where she was. She let out another painful groan.

Please let me be imaging things because one of the guys has finally played the mother of all jokes on me, Emily thought.

Deep down, the young blonde knew the truth. There was no doubt in her mind that she was in a dungeon cell in the very dynasty she had heard so many stories about. The worst part was that along with the pounding headache she remembered everything that had happened.

She could smell the sweet scent of food underneath the tray beside her head, but she couldn't gather enough energy to move. She wrapped one arm around her stomach and rested the other one under her head as a pillow. Emily let exhaustion take over her body as the head wound caused her to fall unconscious again.

END OF CHAPTER FIVE

**I gave you two chapters. Now you give me nice reviews. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Vampire Ronin:** I try to give a treat every once in a while to my lovely readers who leave me reviews. I had to throw a little comedy in there somewhere to make their lives seem "normal."

**LittleMay:** I HATE the new review things. They are ugly and an eyesore. I much prefer the old way to leaving reviews.

**LdySubaru: **Yes, 2 in 1! I'm keeping at it. Glad y'all are enjoying the story thus far.

**HEY ALL! DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT MY OTHER FAN FIC, "TO HELP OR NOT TO HELP"!**

CHAPTER SIX

Sekhmet walked into the dungeons and headed for the cell on the end where they were keeping the mortal. He wasn't surprised to see that she was still sleeping. He unlocked the cell and approached her. The warlord stopped just beside her, pausing to stare down at her.

The girl appeared to be nothing more than just your average, everyday mortal. What purpose could his Master have for actually wanting to see her? Sekhmet knew she was meant to just be bait for the ronin whelps so he couldn't fathom a reason for the evil overlord to see her.

Unless of course he plans to kill her, Sekhmet thought with a smirk.

He used his foot to nudge her not too lightly in the stomach. She didn't even make a sound of waking. He moved to do more than just nudge her when she suddenly spoke.

"Kick me and I _will_ kick you right back," Emily murmured in a clear voice.

Sekhmet raised an eyebrow. He would love to see her try. He went to give her a real kick when suddenly, in a flash, he found himself flat on his back. As fast as he was down, he snapped back to his feet and had Emily up by the throat. He slammed her hard against the dungeon wall.

Her head made a loud crack as it connected with the hard stone, causing its echo to bounce off the stone walls. She cried out at first contact and hissed at the stinging pain shooting through her head.

"It seems the ronin whelps have worn off on you, girl. Only they would be this foolish," he spat at her.

Emily smiled weakly. She could clearly see small lines from where she had scratched him. It seemed the warlords healed as quickly as the ronins did from injuries. She brought her hand up to tap him lightly on the cheek where the scratches were.

Narrowing his eyes, Sekhmet gave her throat another rough squeeze before setting her down on her feet. He moved his hand around to the back of her throat where he kept a tight grip. He used his other hand to twist an arm behind her back.

She gritted her teeth as he yanked her out of the cell and out of the dungeons. The pain lacing through the back of her head was so intense she would be surprised if she wasn't bleeding. Neither one of them spoke as Emily was dragged down several hallways before being brought to an empty throne room. Only then did the Warlord of Venom release his hold on her.

Emily brought her hand up to smooth her throat as Sekhmet left the room. When the door slammed shut, Emily chose to glance around the room. She jumped back when images appeared on the blank screen in front of her.

The images displayed fights between the ronin warriors and warlords. If she looked close enough, she could see herself hiding behind some trees with White Blaze beside her. Upon closer inspection, she saw that there were small dashes of color surrounding her feet. The colors matched those of the ronin armors.

Emily felt shivers run up her back as a voice spoke to her again. This time, the voice was cold, dark, and scared Emily to no end.

"The ronins know not of the power you possess. It will soon surpass even Wildfire's Inferno Armor."

Emily's gaze narrowed. She was at a loss for words. What could this mean?

"She doesn't even know. So much power in one so young," spoke a different voice.

Emily thought the voices may have belonged to the warlords, but they didn't match up to those she had heard already. The voices seemed to emanate more power. This led her to believe that the voices must belong to Talpa and Badamon; the ronins had mentioned the blue demon on occasion.

I am just royally screwed, Emily thought.

She jumped back in surprise when Badamon appeared. She was more shocked by his physical appearance than his actual appearance from the shadows.

"The power she possesses is strong, but will require training to bring it forward, Master Talpa. Let the warlords force it out of her," he suggested.

Emily had a good suggestion of where they could put that idea, but wisely chose not to speak. She could only imagine what they meant by "force it out." She had to stop herself from backing up when Badamon came closer.

"The head wound is only minimal. It has already begun healing faster than an average mortal. It will be a good test to see how long Halo affects her," Badamon said.

Emily frowned. What did her brother have to do with this? And why would his armor have any effect on her? The headache she was sporting was starting to become a permanent fixture.

"Take her back to the dungeons."

A dynasty soldier appeared and escorted her to the dungeons. Emily made mental notes of her surroundings as they walked through the halls. She wasn't surprised the soldier took the key with it when she was left in the cell.

Noticing a tray of fresh food left for her, Emily sat down and began to eat. Normally, she would have been suspicious of food poisoning, but she figured the demon lord's goal wasn't to kill her.

I doubt he would allow one of his warlords to poison me. At least not this early in the game when all the pieces are being placed on the board, Emily thought.

She ate the bowl of soup and broke off pieces of her bread to dip in the soup. Even though she was starving, Emily ate slowly so as not to upset her stomach. When she was done, she calmly placed the tray aside.

After sitting still for a few minutes, the young woman started pacing in her cell like a caged tiger. Her mind was full of so many unanswered questions that she was ready to slam her head against the concrete floor to even out the pain.

/_Meditate and calm the mind._/

No longer caring where the mysterious voice was coming from, Emily sat down in a corner of the cell. She sat carefully with her legs crossed, allowed herself to relax and almost instantly fell into a meditative stance.

Time seemed to slowly pass as Emily fell into a calming state of mind. It was some time later when Emily snapped out of her trance. She glanced around the room before speaking.

"I know you're there," she stated.

She snapped her head to the right when a figure appeared from the shadows of the cell.

"I see we've caught a clever girl," Cale said.

Emily shot him a dirty look, but chose only to stand in response. She leaned her back against the dungeon wall with her arms crossed over her chest. Cale stepped closer while still keeping a short distance from her.

"I'm surprised you have nothing to say. You seemed so…_spirited_ before," he said.

Emily regarded him carefully with her bright blue eyes.

"Why am I here?" she asked.

Cale's laugh bounced off the walls and sent chills up Emily's spine. She was starting to begin why her brother had warned her so strongly of the Warlord of Darkness.

"You're here because you are a personal guest of the dynasty."

Emily snorted. She broke off the eye contact to look at the floor.

"Personal guest, my ass. You took me from my home and family. I'm in a dungeon cell surrounded by soldiers. I may be blonde, but I'm not stupid," she replied.

Cale had to resist the urge to laugh again. This little one had quite the fiery spirit. It had been quite some time since he had been so amused. Emily spoke again.

"Do any of you plan to ask me my name?" Emily picked her head up to catch his gaze again. "I know who _you_ are."

The warlord didn't let it show, but he was surprised. He asked her what that was.

"Cale. You're Talpa's Warlord of Corruption. Sage told me about you."

With the blink of an eye, Cale was a lot closer to Emily. She leaned as far back against the wall and glared at him as if daring him to take a step closer.

"Sage of the Halo was a fool to tell you so much and fail to protect you at the same time," he sneered.

From the light of the torches in the hallway, Emily could swear she saw the warlord's eyes glow. His eyes held such darkness that it was no wonder he was the Warlord of Darkness.

"What _is_ your name?"

She paused before answering. Should she tell them her name? Without breaking his gaze, she said, "Emily."

Cale reached his hand out to touch her cheek except Emily jerked her head away, preventing him from doing so. Cale moved to take a swing at her and Emily raised her arms in front of her face to block.

Except nothing happened. Emily slowly opened her eyes and lowered her arms a little. Cale hadn't struck her because he was gone. A careful look around the cell proved to her that he had left the dungeons.

"Well, that was random," she murmured.

All she could do was sit back down in a corner of the cell and try to fall asleep. She hoped her text message had gotten through to her brother. She couldn't remember how much she had written or if she had even hit the send button.

Come on, Sage. Come find me, big brother, Emily said to herself.

/…/

Back in the mortal realm, Sage was sitting in a fancy restaurant in deep thought. His date had excused herself to the bathroom. A sudden feeling had overcome him. He couldn't begin to describe how he felt. It was just a strange, out of body experience. He felt like there was a missing piece to a puzzle.

Sage pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to look at it. There were no missed calls or text messages. Looking up to make sure his date wasn't returning yet, Sage typed a short text to Cye and pressed send. It didn't take long for his friend to respond.

**Everything's quiet here.**

Sage nodded his head. He probably had just caught a whiff of something from another table. There were a few things on the menu that tended to upset his stomach with the overpowering scents and smells.

I'm sure everything's fine, Sage thought.

Little did Sage know how wrong he was.

END OF CHAPTER SIX

**Keep up the reviews.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Vampire Ronin: **Of course, no one got her message. What fun would it be if they did? I have to throw in some twists somewhere. Lol

**Guest/Anonymous:** Thank you very much. I'm glad you like my work.

**LittleMay:** Yes, things are starting to heat up. Love, love, love that you keep reviewing!

**LdySubaru:** Here comes more.

**NOTE: Hello to all my readers and reviewers! I apologize for the late update. The holiday week has been very busy and I was very sad to say goodbye to my family's dog, a thirteen year old Golden Retriever. But I'm back and here's a new chapter.**

CHAPTER SEVEN

Emily sighed for about the umpteenth time. Tonight would be her third night at the dynasty. After the first day of being stuck in the dungeons, she had come to the realization that her text message had not gone through. That and she didn't have her phone on her so she couldn't even try to contact any of the ronins.

So it was up to her to do something about it. Emily waited patiently while glancing at her watch. She waited for a minute to pass before reaching down to her right sneaker. She slipped out some small tools from a hidden compartment on the side of her sneaker.

Standing up, Emily approached the cell door. Slipping her arms through the bars, she brought the tools to the lock and started fiddling with it. She shifted the parts of the lock to the left, then to the right. After only a few seconds, the lock clicked and the door opened.

"Thank you, Kento, for teaching me that," she murmured.

She hid the tools away on her sneaker before sneaking down the hallway. She had memorized part of the layout of the hallways when she had been dragged by Sekhmet and then dragged again by the dynasty soldier.

She stopped around a corner and counted to twenty. On number ten, two dynasty soldiers passed by and at twenty, they had turned the corner at the end of the hall. Emily moved from her spot to quickly jog down the hall. She carefully glanced around the corner before darting down the hallway.

Suddenly, she heard someone shouting. She stopped to listen closely. It was one of the warlords! They must have discovered she was gone.

"_Damn_," she cursed.

Throwing caution to the wind, Emily shot off down the halls, weaving and darting. She heard voices all around here and tried to miss them by hiding in small corners when soldiers ran by.

"Find the girl!"

Emily held her breath as she heard a warlord run by. Slowly, she turned her head around the corner to check to see where the warlord had gone. A strong hand grabbed her, causing Emily to whip back around. One of the soldiers had her by the wrist and was raising a spear to her face.

Emily brought her arm up and twisted it, forcing the soldier to release her. Closing her fist, she backhanded the spear away from her. She twirled around and kicked the soldier in the stomach. The soldier slammed into the wall and crumbled to the floor with black smoke pouring out of it.

Clutching the back of her wrist, Emily dashed down the hall in the direction the warlord had come from. She spent the next five minutes running down halls, dodging soldiers, and trying to detect where the warlords were.

Stopping to catch her breath, Emily leaned against the wall. She worked to calm her mind and try to figure out how much further she had to go before she was outside. She peeked her head around the sixth corner since she had escaped. She looked to the left then the right.

Without warning, a strong force pulled her backwards and she lashed out in response.

"Little bitch!"

/…/

"How the Hell did she get out?"

Sekhmet shrugged. The three warlords were sitting around a small table eating dinner. They had been in the middle of training when Cale had gone to check on their prisoner and found her gone. It had been Sekhmet that had finally caught her and dragged her back to the cell.

"I'll be happy when we're rid of her," Sekhmet mumbled.

Dais nodded his head in agreement while Cale shrugged. Dais started to say something when they heard soldiers running in the hall. He snapped his head back to Sekhmet.

"You said you chained her to the wall," Dais said.

Sekhmet's eyes narrowed. "This girl is more trouble than she's worth." He vanished from sight with a sneer.

The other two vanished to search for the girl again.

/…/

Emily groaned. She woke up with a stabbing pain in her back and wrists. She had managed to escape to the outside before both Dais and Cale had caught up with her. Emily wasn't proud of that particular moment since she had been cursing like a sailor.

She stared down at wrists angrily. After her first escape, Sekhmet had simply attached a chain to her ankle. Upon returning the second time, they had bound her wrists with chains. This would prove to be more difficult with escaping with such little movement possible.

She was pleased to see her head didn't ache anymore. One of the warlords, probably Cale, had smacked her hard in the head with the heel of an open palm.

"I hope Sage blasts him to the moon and back," she mumbled.

Clink. Emily's head snapped up. Standing in the doorway was a woman who looked to be in her fifties or sixties. She was carrying a covered tray. She smiled sweetly.

"Kon'niciwa, wakai [Hello, young one]," the woman said.

Emily smiled in return.

"I'm sorry, but I don't practice speaking Japanese a lot," she apologized.

The woman's smile grew as she stepped into the cell. She bent down and placed the tray on Emily's lap. Emily tried to think of the Japanese word for thank you. Truth be told, her oldest sister had tried teaching her, but she had been more interested in other things.

"Arigato [Thank you]," she finally said.

The woman nodded her head and patted Emily gently on the head.

"Anata o kangei shi, -kodearu. Anata no atama wa dódesu ka? [You are welcome, child. How is your head?]" she asked.

"It's been better. The last time I hurt my head this much, my older sister Satsuki accidentally tripped me down the stairs," she replied.

The woman waited patiently as Emily ate the breakfast she had brought. She spoke quietly to Emily. The young girl learned that her name was Kaori, she was a servant who served the warlords, and she was the one who had been leaving meals for her. Emily also learned that Kaori was treated fair; the warlords never struck at her.

Emily thought this sounded odd, but decided to shrug it off. Finally, Emily finished her meal and stood up to hand the tray back to Kaori.

"Hitori no wakai, arigato [Thank you, young one]," Kaori said.

"You can call me Emily. Although I suspect the warlords have another name for me," she said with her voice dropping off at the end.

Kaori giggled.

"Karera wa arimasen [They do]," she said before leaving the dungeons.

Emily frowned. What exactly could they be calling her? Granted, Sekhmet had called her a

certain five letter word last night so she could imagine what names they were coming up with.

Emily leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes to start her meditation. Her eyes snapped open when she heard the sound of someone unlocking the door again. Sekhmet stormed over to her and jerked her up to her feet by grabbing the chain connecting her wrists.

"You're coming with me," he said.

Emily gasped when he whipped her around and bound a blindfold over her eyes. She struggled to keep him from doing so but there was very little she could do with her wrists bound. Emily stumbled as he yanked her out of the dungeons.

Pressure hit her head and Emily felt as if she was going to hurl. Being led down hallways with her sight gone was not easy on the head or stomach. Right about the moment where she was about to lose her stomach's contents, she was stopped and the manacles were taken off.

Emily yanked the blindfold down so the bandana hung around her neck. She was shocked to find herself inside a training room instead of the throne room. Before she could even think about why she was brought here, Emily had turned and ducked just in time to miss a blow from Sekhmet.

She propelled herself backwards and did two backflips to make the distance wider. Emily threw up her hands to block when the Warlord of Venom continued his onslaught. As she continued to dodge and block, Emily realized his attacking her probably had nothing to do with her attempts of escape.

Talpa and Badamon talked about having the warlords force something out of me. This is probably what they had in mind, Emily thought.

Unbeknownst to the blonde girl, the other two warlords were masked by the shadows. They were watching with great interest as Emily switched from defense to offensive. She blocked a punch from the left then the right then threw two punches of her own.

"She's got a decent punch," Dais commented.

Cale made an hmm sound. "I'm sure she keeps Halo busy." The two shared a quiet chuckle.

Emily threw up her arms and caught herself in a corner of the room. She ducked and twirled around away from Sekhmet when he threw a dagger at her. It stuck into the wall where Sekhmet had thrown the dagger.

At one moment, the two stopped. Emily was down on one knee with the fingertips of her hands on the ground on either side of her. She was ready to spring back to action soon as he attacked again.

Sekhmet smirked. He straightened up and walked sideways. This didn't cause him to come closer, but Emily still watched his movements carefully.

"You're still just as weak as the other mortal," he said.

Emily narrowed her gaze. That insult was either about her or Mia. Either way she didn't like it. Her next comment flared up his temper to the point that he stepped up the fight and started landing blows on her.

Emily fell back against the wall with a rapidly bruising arm and a split lip. She reached her hand up to dab gently at her bleeding lip. Before she could have time to say something, Sekhmet lunged at her. Everything happened in a flash.

Emily dove away to a corner, did a tumble roll, jumped upwards to jerk the dagger out of the wall, and flung it back at the warlord. Sekhmet barely had enough time to duck, thus preventing the dagger from nailing him directly in the eye.

His eyes flashed a dark green as he stared at where Emily had been. Glancing around then up, he found that Emily had somehow made it up to the top of a beam in another corner of the training room. She was sitting on it with her legs dangling off the side.

The most shocking part of her calm exterior was a bright symbol glowing a light green from her forehead. It was the kanji for Spirit. She didn't seem to know of its appearance as she took in slow deep breaths. Not wanting to make her suspicious, Sekhmet didn't give away that anything was wrong.

[How the Hell did she get up _there_?]

The other two had momentarily lost sight of her in the confusion of her using Sekhmet's own dagger against him. None of them had seen how the little witch had gotten up there. There was nothing for her to be able to climb up and she would have needed the power of an armor to jump up so high.

Emily wasn't quite sure herself how she had managed to get up on the beam. She had simply dashed away and leaped. This is where she had landed. It reminded her of when Kento had been running away from an angry Cye and had been leaping all over to the house in his subarmor.

"Why don't you come down, little one?" Sekhmet called in a teasing tone of voice.

Emily broke out of her thoughts to look down at the warlord. She shook her head firmly.

"No, thank you. I've had enough of being a human punching bag," she said.

Emily almost regretted her words when Sekhmet smirked. She had quite the nasty habit of putting words before thinking them through.

[Maybe you should go after her.]

Cale's suggestion had merit. The girl must have been able to read his mind because she spoke again.

"I suggest you stay down there and keep the Hell away from me."

Sekhmet smirked with a chuckle. [Let's teach our new little friend a lesson.]

/…/

"It said Spirit, Master. The girl has basic fighting skills, but nothing else," Dais reported.

The three smiled with glee. It had been quite the entertainment when Emily had jumped down from the beam to avoid Sekhmet only to come face-to-face with Dais and Cale. She had managed to last a few minutes with blocking and ducking, but having three fully experienced, 400-something old warlords ganging up on her had taken its toll.

A minute or two later, Emily hit a wall and crumbled to the ground unconscious. After checking her pulse, Dais had carried her back to the dungeons and left her there unchained. He had cleaned up a few serious cuts on her arms, but otherwise left her to heal on her own.

Talpa had more to discuss with Badamon. The girl was being pushed past her limits yet was only showing the sign of a kanji. She did not appear to possess abilities similar to the ronin warriors' armors. It would only be a matter of time before the ronins realized her absence and came for her.

Images appeared on the screen in the form of the ronins. Kento and Rowen were out of the house in a building look at star charts, Sage and Ryo were in town changing a tire on Sage's car, and Cye was alone at the house washing the windows from the outside.

"Cye of the Torrent is alone. Attack him now and give nothing away that the girl has been taken!"

"Yes, Master," the three said before disappearing to Earth.

The images changed to the dungeons. Emily was still lying on the floor unconscious. Upon closer inspection, the cuts and bruises on her body were glowing green like the Halo armor. The marks that were glowing slowly healed until there was barely a blemish on her skin.

Badamon appeared in the throne room. He stared at the screen and watched the girl carefully.

"It appears that Halo has a stronger influence than the other ronin armors. If the warlords keep pushing her, the full force of her abilities _will_ come," Badamon said.

Talpa's eyes flashed red. The warlords would have to push her harder to force her to use her untapped power before the ronins came to her rescue.

END OF CHAPTER SEVEN


	8. Chapter 8

**LdySubaru: **Thank you for the condolences. He will always have a part of my heart. Anywho, here's my update!

**LittleMay:** Yes. And it's only going to get worse as the story progresses. I already have the sequel started, too.

**Vampire Ronin: **That was totally not meant as an insult. It was just a comment. If you think this is bad, there is a part in one of the last chapters that had me rolling around laughing while I was attempting to write it. I will miss my "fuzzy wuzzy". Hey, she learned some of her best tricks from Kento. Yep. We'll see how much of her power shows up. *looks at date* Oooh, God! It's been that long since an update. OOPS.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Rowen sat in the living room pondering over yesterday's events. He and Kento had been enjoying their time at the planetarium when Cye had sent out a telepathic distress signal. They had rushed back to Mia's house to find Cye losing in a battle against the warlords. What Rowen couldn't understand was why the sudden attack had occurred.

Everything had just seemed so random. Kento and Rowen had quickly armored up to come to Cye's aid. Ryo and Sage arrived soon after to join the fight. However, once all five ronins were on the scene, the warlords had left just as soon as they had arrived.

Shrugging it off, the others had gone back to their normal routines. But Rowen felt different. He felt like something was off, something was wrong. It was like a mathematics problem that was using the right formula yet had some errors in the calculations somewhere.

"I need to clear my head," he murmured.

Grabbing up his jacket, Rowen called to Kento in the kitchen.

"I'm going for a jog, Kento!" "Okay, Rowen!"

Pulling his jacket on as he went out the door, Rowen shot off towards the road with a quick sprint. Once he reached the road, he slowed to an even paced jog. He jogged down the side of the road and thought about nothing except the run. After jogging for a mile, Rowen stopped to jog in place while checking his heart rate.

Something on the ground beside his feet caused Rowen to stop and stoop down. Rowen brushed away some twigs and dirt to reveal a cell phone. He picked it up and began examining it. The cell phone was small and silver in color. The screen had some serious cracks in it and either the battery was too low or the phone had too much damage to turn on.

Standing up, Rowen turned back around to walk to the house. He took long strides as he returned to the house. The phone seemed familiar to him but he couldn't put his finger on it where he had seen it. He figured he could fix it up then return the cell phone to its owner.

Once Rowen got back to the house, he locked himself up in his and Sage's room. He pulled out a small toolkit and set up shop at his desk. He started fiddling with the battery piece then moved on to look at different parts of the phone that were out of place.

A sense of dread started worming its way into his heart. He recognized the type of phone now. _**Emily**_ had a phone just like it. He popped the battery back into its proper place and flipped it over. Pressing the power button, he waited to see if the phone was going to boot up.

He gasped when the familiar image of an orca appeared on the screen. It could just be a

coincidence, but Emily had the same image as the wallpaper image on her phone. Rowen decided he had to investigate this further.

Leaving the phone on his desk and turning off the desk lamp, Rowen left the room to go next door to Ryo's room. He rapped on the door and waited for permission to enter before coming in. Ryo was sitting on his bed engrossed in what looked like a good book.

"Can I borrow your motorcycle?" he asked.

Ryo slowly put his book down with a raised eyebrow. He knew Rowen could drive a motorcycle, but the fellow ronin had never asked to borrow his bike before.

"Sure," he said, reaching over the side of the bed to grab up his helmet and keys. "Is everything okay?"

Rowen stepped forward to take the offered items. He surprised Ryo by shaking his head.

"Something feels off, Ryo. I'm going to the camping grounds," he answered.

Ryo frowned.

"To see Emily?" Ryo asked curiously.

Rowen nodded. Ryo tried to find out more from his friend, but the man promised him it was probably nothing. Rowen jogged down the stairs and out the door with his jacket and helmet in hand. Rowen zipped up his jacket, put on the helmet, and pushed the motorcycle out to the driveway.

He started the engine, climbed on, and took off. All Rowen could think about on the trip was that he _had_ to be wrong. The phone probably belonged to someone else (after all, a lot of people liked orcas!) and Emily was having a ball camping with her friends.

So lost in his thoughts, he failed to notice a large pure white dog running parallel to him through the woods. The dog was releasing a small amount of energy that was small enough to be undetected but large enough to disrupt Talpa's spying on the one ronin.

After only a short amount of time, Rowen arrived at the campgrounds. He checked with the Ranger to determine where Emily's group of friends was camping. He left the motorcycle and helmet by the Ranger station since the group wasn't far away.

Rowen darted through the trees and over the hill. He spotted the group at the bottom of the hill near the lake. As he came close to the camp, one of Emily's friends spotted him and walked over to greet him.

"Hey Rowen! I guess Emily sweet-talked you into coming to get her bag," he said, picking up a bag that was nearby.

Rowen frowned.

"Good to see you too, Saul," he said awkwardly.

Saul must have sensed his hesitation as he took the bag from him.

"Didn't Emily tell you?" Saul asked.

"Tell me what?" Rowen asked.

Now it was Saul's turn to frown. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Emily called off last minute. She said she could wait to get her stuff back," Saul explained.

Rowen chuckled nervously, but didn't let it show. He calmed Emily's friend down by explaining that he had just forgotten due to keeping busy over a project. As he rushed back to the motorcycle, Rowen threw Emily's bag over his shoulder and snatched his phone out of his pocket.

He quickly pressed number three on his speed dial. He only had to wait for the phone to ring two times before the person on the other line picked up.

" 'ello?"

"Ryo, get everyone back to Mia's!" Rowen exclaimed as he reached the bike.

"Slow down, Rowen. You sound like you're out of breath." Rowen took a few deep breaths, effectively slowing his heart rate down. "Now, tell me what's up."

"I can't. It'll have to wait for everyone to be back at the house," Rowen said.

Ryo grew silent on the other end. Rowen almost thought he had hung up but a quick glance at his phone showed the call was still operating.

"Kento and Cye are here, but Sage is like two hours away," he murmured.

Rowen sighed. "Call him and tell him he _needs_ to come back."

Rowen heard Ryo take a sharp intake of breath on the other side of the line. Rowen mentally cursed. Ryo had probably just figured out what or who needed all of them present at the house.

"It's Emily?" Ryo said as more than a question.

"It's Emily," Rowen confirmed.

Another pause. "I'll make the call."

/…/

"What do you mean something's wrong with my sister? _**Where's Rowen**_? I'm going to kill him!"

Cye and Kento cringed as they heard Sage storm into the house. It sounded like Ryo was failing miserably with trying to calm down the warrior of Light. Rowen was sitting hunched over his desk trying to piece the cell phone back together. He was blocking out all sound. He was the only one who didn't flinch when Sage slammed the door open and stormed in.

"Someone better tell me what's going on," demanded the normally patient warrior.

Cye and Kento put their hands up and slowly backed away from where Rowen was. Turning his head away from the cell phone to regard his best friend, Rowen spoke calmly and in a quiet voice. His calm nature encased Sage and brought his rage down.

"I think something's happened to Emily. I found this cell phone about a mile away from the house. It's the same type of phone that Emily has and it has the same wallpaper image as hers. She's not at the camping grounds, Sage. Her friends said she called it off at the last minute," he explained.

Sage stared at his friend with narrowed eyes before taking out his cell phone and making a call. The four of them waited as the phone rang.

"Sofu? Emirí´wa iededesu ka? Hai, watashi wa kanojo no kyanpu o oboete imasu. Ojían, arigato."

Sage hung up his phone and glared at an invisible spot on the floor.

"Emily's not at the house." He looked up at his friends. "This isn't like her."

Rowen turned back around to finish fixing the cell phone. He told Sage he shouldn't start worrying just yet. They still didn't know whether the smashed cell phone belonged to Emily or not.

"I can't access the contacts database but I may be able to make it so that the phone can be called."

After fiddling with it for a little longer, Rowen finally had it fixed well enough to receive a call. Sage hit the speed dial number reserved for his sister and they all waited. They all listened in horror as Sage's image appeared on the phone and familiar ringtone reserved for him rang loudly. Finally, Rowen found the strength to hit the End Call button.

"Where did you find the phone, Rowen?" Cye asked.

"About a mile from here. I can show you wher-," Rowen was interrupted by Sage's phone going off.

Sage looked down at his phone's screen. It said New Text Message on it. He opened the text message and gasped.

"Sage? What is it, man?" Kento inquired.

"It's a text from Emily. She must have been sending it when her phone got smashed. But it's only half a message."

The other four ronins crowded around their friend so they could all read the message.

**From Emily:**

**SOS 1 mi W from u. Wa**

Rowen looked at it thoughtfully, Kento scratched his head, Cye made an hmm sound, and Ryo huffed in annoyance. They could easily figure out that SOS meant there was danger and a mile west from them was where her phone had been left. They just couldn't figure out what the rest of "Wa…" was supposed to be.

They decided to investigate further and check the area around where her phone had been. On the way out the door, Ryo whistled for White Blaze to have him help with the search. The five of them split up to search the nearby woods and park.

All of them searched high and low, but could find nothing that would tell them what had happened. Cye was walking around the tree when he stopped dead. Standing a few feet from him was a large, pure white dog. It had a hat sitting on the ground by its front paws. Cye recognized it as one of the hats he had seen Emily showing White Blaze the last time she had been at the house.

"Hullo? Good boy. I just want to see the hat," Cye spoke quietly as he approached the dog.

The dog showed no signs of aggression or fear as it sat back on its haunches. It allowed Cye to come closer to stoop down and pick it up. He was surprised when a small white cloth dropped out of the hat. He picked it up and brought it close to his face to take in a small whiff.

Instantly, Cye jerked the cloth away while scrunching up his face. The smell was foul on the one side of the cloth. It smelled suspiciously like the concoction Rowen had mixed together a few months ago. Cye had been the unfortunate one to smell it and slept for two days as a result.

If the stuff on this cloth is similar to Rowen's chemicals then it means someone _took_ Emily, Cye thought.

Cye lifted his head to find the dog gone. He hadn't even heard the dog leave and there were plenty of crunched leaves on the ground around him.

He sent a thought along the mind link to the other ronins to tell them what he had discovered. He only hoped they could find out soon who had kidnapped Emily.

END OF CHAPTER EIGHT

**NOTE: Since it took so long for this update, I'm not giving you one, but TWO new chapters!**


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

It was late, but Emily couldn't push herself to fall asleep. The dungeons were getting too cold what with her pullover still in her backpack. With moonlight resting on her from the only window, Emily sat meditating and trying to figure out what to do.

She hadn't heard the voice in a while, but that didn't make her nervous. She figured it would come back eventually or she snapped; whichever came first. She had gotten so used to the soldiers coming and going to check on her that she made no move when she heard the door click open.

"You're not even flinching anymore, little one."

I am really starting to get annoyed with that nickname, Emily angrily thought. What honestly gave them the right to even call her that? Sure, they were taller and four hundred something years older, but she still did not care for it.

"Is there any particular reason for your visit?" Emily asked without opening her eyes.

"I'm here to get you out of here."

Emily scrunched her face up in confusion before opening her eyes to look up at the Warlord of Venom.

"You're letting me go?" she said confused.

Sekhmet chuckled. He shook his head. Emily smiled and closed her eyes to return to her meditation.

"Then leave me alone," she said in a sickly sweet voice.

After a few seconds, Emily thought the man had left but she nearly jumped to the ceiling when he tapped her on top of the head. She reached her hand up and pushed his hand away. Another surprise was that he showed no reaction to the push.

"I'm taking you out of the dungeons. You're being moved so we can keep a better eye on you," he explained.

Emily wasn't sure she wanted to go anywhere with any of the warlords, but she would surely catch pneumonia if she spent another night in the dungeons. Emily sighed before opening her eyes and standing. Sekhmet reached out to unlock the manacles from her wrists which caused even more confusion.

"You won't need those," he smirked.

Emily shrugged her shoulders and walked towards the door. Her mistake was turning her back on one of Talpa's dark warlords.

THWACK! CR-R-R-ACK! CLINK! "Bastard!"

/…/

Dais was walking down the hall to the kitchen when he bumped into Cale outside of Sekhmet's room.

"She's gone."

Dais swore. They had never had so much trouble trying to keep one prisoner imprisoned. What would it take to slow this girl down? A coma?

"She couldn't have gone far," Dais said.

Cale let a wolfish grin appear on his face. Dais raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe we should play with the little one this time," he leered.

The two shared knowing smirks. It was so much more fun to play with mortals when they didn't possess mystical armors like them.

"I got a game for you, dumbass! Why don't you go play hide and seek in poison ivy?" shouted an all too familiar voice.

Dais and Cale both turned their heads to look at the door to Sekhmet's room. Without knocking, they opened the door and walked in. They were shocked to find Emily in their fellow warlord's room. She was sitting up on a table leaning her back against a wall with a large albino Burmese Python wrapped around her.

Sekhmet was near her, handling another snake by taking a vial of venom from it.

[What is _she_ doing in **here**?] Dais.

Sekhmet chose not to face his brothers-in-arms as he coaxed the snake to give up the venom.

[She's better off in here with us. We can keep a better eye on her.]

While Dais and Sekhmet engaged in a mental argument, Cale focused his attention on Emily. The snake she was holding wasn't poisonous or venomous yet it could easily squeeze the life out of her frail body. Neither he nor Dais ever handled any of Sekhmet's snakes, especially his one red spitting cobra.

The snake had its lower body draped across her lap, coiled the middle around her left arm and around behind her shoulders before resting its head on the inside of her right arm. She had her right hand turned awkwardly to lightly pet the top of the snake's head.

Walking closer, Cale saw that the snake's eyes were closed as if it were enjoying the attention. Emily ignored him as he sat down dangerously close to her.

"Such a brave soul to handle such a dangerous creature," he whispered so quietly that only she could hear.

"I've always been fine with reptiles, especially snakes. It's my two sisters that have problems with them," she said, turning her head to look at him. "Why don't you go snatch one of them?"

Her last comment was dripping with sarcasm. Deep down, she knew they wouldn't take the bait. She had already started figuring out what Talpa and Badamon had been talking about. After her wounds had healed so rapidly from the warlords ganging up on her, she had started putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

"They're not as close to Halo as you are. We have no need for _them_."

Emily had to agree with this statement. Her being the youngest of the family (and female) and Sage being the only boy caused them to be very close. After finishing his debate with Dais, Sekhmet walked over and began unwinding the snake from around Emily. She petted the snake on the head before pushing herself off the table and heading for the door.

Cale tilted his head as he watched her walk towards the door. She was favoring her right leg with putting very little pressure down on it.

[Why is she limping?]

Emily must have sensed his confusion because it was her who answered him.

"The jerk sprained my ankle so I couldn't run," Emily said before disappearing out the door.

Giving his friend a pat on the shoulder, Cale dashed out the door to follow her. A second later, the two of them heard Emily's voice again.

"Oh, for the love of peach! What are you? My damn shadow?"

Sekhmet snorted back a laugh.

[She does make our lives interesting.]

Dais glared.

[Interesting isn't a strong enough word for what she does.]

/…/

Emily padded the pillow and pulled the blanket up her chin before settling down on the couch. She was lucky that all the warlords were leaving her alone to sleep. Of course, it probably had to do with the fact that Sekhmet had left his trained, heavy albino Burmese Python laid out on her back.

These three are going to be the death of me, she thought.

"Oyasumi, chíana ichi [Good night, little one]."

A soft, elderly hand patted Emily gently on the head. Emily blinked her eyes open to gaze up at the elderly woman.

"Can you take the snake off my back?" she whispered.

Kaori smiled softly. She shook her head.

"Íe, watashi wa dekimasen [No, I cannot]," Kaori whispered back.

Emily returned her smile while reaching out to gently grasp her hand. Kaori squeezed back.

"He's too heavy for you to lift," Emily commented.

"Gunbatsu wa, ikatteirudarou to. Gomen'nasai [That and the warlords would be mad. I'm sorry]."

"I understand. Good night, Kaori."

Emily closed her eyes and buried her head into the pillow. She felt Kaori lean down and place a light kiss on the top of her head.

"Yoi yume to kokoro ni heiwa [Good dreams and peace to mind.]"

/…/

/_Emily._/

_Emily opened her eyes and found herself standing outside the dynasty castle. She could see the castle a short distance behind her. She was standing next to a cherry blossom tree at the top of a hill._

_/Emily. Come to me, child._/

_The voice was the same one she had been hearing since her weekend with Sage. It sounded warm _

_and comforting. Compelled to listen to the voice, Emily started walking in the direction the voice was coming from. She walked down a path between two rows of cherry blossom trees before reaching a lake._

_There was a long wooden bridge starting from where she was and stretching across the lake. Taking a deep breath, Emily started trekking down the bridge. After some time, she finally reached the end of the bridge and lake._

_Shifting her gaze upwards, Emily spotted a figure standing under a sleeping willow at the top of a hill. She jogged up the hill to where he stood._

"_Hello, Emily," he greeted._

"_You're the one who's been talking to me. Since my weekend with Sage," Emily said._

_The man nodded._

"_Why?" she asked._

"_You needed guiding. I am sorry I wasn't able to help you more with escaping capture."_

_A part of her wanted to start yelling at him that he should have told her sooner; that she could have called the ronins to her at the University while she was still among students. However, another part of her realized that the warlords were resourceful; they would have found a way to get to her._

_In the end, she accepted his apology._

"_We don't have much time. I must tell you why Talpa is interested in you," he said, gesturing for Emily to take a seat._

_Emily limped over to the tree and sat down with her back resting against it. The stranger surprised her by pulling out a small bag of ice to rest on her ankle. She sighed with relief as the ice cooled down the pain._

"_I know it has something to do with the ronin warriors and not my relation to Sage," she said._

_The man nodded._

"_You are correct. Your relation to Halo and overexposure to the ronin warriors while in armor has caused a rift. The armors have transferred some of their special abilities to you. I'm sure you've noticed your wounds healing at a faster rate than normal."_

"_That's from the Halo armor, right? Sage?" A nod. "But I haven't shown any signs for the other four."_

_The man let out a light chuckle that warmed Emily's heart. It was a warm relief from the cruel and dark laughter of her captors._

"_You're using a special ability right now. You're not dreaming right now. You are using astral projection."_

_Emily raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest._

"_What's astral projection?" she inquired._

_Emily sat listening as he explained that astral projection was an out of body experience. People who were meditating or in a deep sleep could project an "astral body." The astral body would separate from the physical body and be able to travel in the physical world where they could be seen by others. _

_He further explained that astral projection was a special ability she acquired from the Armor of Strata. The young blonde frowned._

"_I've never seen Rowen use astral projection," she protested._

"_The armors affect you differently. The abilities will have a connection to the armors, but not necessarily the abilities the ronins have."_

_After thinking on it for a minute, Emily understood. Next, she asked the man about escaping._

"_When the time is right, you'll be able to escape. You just have to wait for the opportunity to present itself."_

_Emily started to speak, but a sudden internal jerking on her stomach caused her to stop. She fell slightly forward but the man steadied her by catching her arm._

"_What's happening?" she gasped._

"_Someone must be trying to wake you. It's causing your astral body to revert back to your physical body," he explained._

"_It's only like two in the morning! Who in their right mind would be waking me?"_

_Her question went unanswered as she felt the jerk again. Her body was ripped away from the man as she went flying back the direction she had come from._

"_Wait! I don't know your name!" she shouted._

_His response was mumbled as Emily rocketed back to her body._

The weight of the snake was suddenly lifted off her back and Emily was jerked off the couch to the floor. Emily groaned as she blinked her eyes open. A hand reached down to grab her by the back of her shirt and lift her up. Sekhmet placed her roughly back on her feet.

Oh, this can't be good, Emily thought.

END OF CHAPTER NINE


	10. Chapter 10

**Guest: **Here's the new chapter! Enjoy.

**Vampire Ronin: **If only Sage knew. Just wait until later when Emily nearly gives him a heart attack. OOPS! Spoiler alert. Hehehe Thank you for your lovely compliment. I only speak a few words in Japanese, actually. All the translated stuff is from Google Translate. I throw it in there occasionally just because. Just for argument's sake, I am going to say the snake _is_ from the Nether Realm. Enjoy!

CHAPTER TEN

Warning? Walking to the house? Wait for next message?

"Argh!"

Rowen brought his hand up to his face and rubbed at his temple. There were multiple papers splayed across his desk with multiple words and messages starting with "Wa." After Cye had found the cloth, Rowen had brought it home to analyze the chemicals. It turned out that the combination of chemicals was a weaker version of the sleeping serum he had created.

"Would Emily have been knocked out for long?" Sage had asked.

"I don't think so. It was probably used for short transportation. So she's still nearby somewhere," was what Rowen had said.

Rowen had been wearing himself down to the ground with worry with trying to figure out the rest of Emily's message. Everyone was trying to do their part with locating Emily. Ryo was down at the University talking to students that had seen Emily while Kento was following up re-tracing Emily's steps from the University to the road.

Sage was down at the police station checking up on old cases to see if any of them matched up to what had happened to Emily (while trying to keep things quiet from his father). Rowen couldn't be sure what Cye was up to, but he imagined it was just as important. Rowen closed his eyes and continued to rub the side of his head.

Rowen's door creaked open and Cye poked his head in. He shot his friend a flop sided grin before coming all the way into the room.

"You need to get some rest, Rowen," Cye said. "You're working yourself into a frenzy."

Rowen shook his head firmly.

"I have to figure out what Emily was trying to tell Sage. It might be the key to figuring out who has her," Rowen protested.

Cye came over and slapped a hand over the paper he had been scribbling on. Rowen frowned up at his friend and moved the hand holding his pencil but Cye caught it in his other hand.

"We'll find her. You can be assured of that. But we won't be any help to her if we're all dead tired. Sleep, then come down for some food."

Rowen released a deep sigh but agreed that he needed the sleep. He pushed himself away from his desk and laid down on his bed. He cracked a smile when he felt his friend throw a blanket over him.

"Thanks, 'Mom'."

Rowen's laughter grew when Cye picked up a pillow and wacked him in the head. 'Mom' was an occasional nickname for Cye when he was acting overly motherly to one of the ronins.

/…/

She watched in fascination as a shallow cut on her forehead healed before her very eyes. Emily stood in the bathroom cleaning her hands up. She had cut them up pretty bad in her fight against Sekhmet. Thank the Heavens Ryo had given her a couple of lessons with his katanas.

Emily gritted her teeth as she pulled a small piece of wood out of her hand. She would have been a lot worse off if Sekhmet hadn't been suddenly called away. He had stopped his attack without warning, then had grabbed her around the waist and disappeared. He had reappeared in the living room and left her.

Then again he could have used the blades with venom, too, Emily thought.

With a little bit of peace, she had decided to clean herself up a little. Kaori had returned her backpack and she had used the spare clothes in there to change. She scooted her backpack into a corner before bending to tie her shoelace.

Suddenly, she stood in a fluid motion and whipped around. She nearly jumped back in fright at the sight of Badamon.

"The power of the ronin armors grows with every minute but Master Talpa needs it before the ronin warriors can come to your aid," he said.

Emily backed up slowly away from the spirit. She didn't need her new friend talking to her mentally to know that the spirit had something up his sleeve in mind.

In the blink of an eye, Emily was transported. She appeared on her knees in a room unfamiliar to her. Her head felt cloudy and she couldn't seem to clear it. She could hear chanting in a strange language coming from all around her.

Emily gasped. All of the energy was draining from her body and she couldn't seem to get a breath in. She gasped for breaths, but she could feel the oxygen leaving her body and her lungs squeezing painfully from the lack of air.

/_What is he doing? If he keeps this up, he's going to kill me!_/

Emily began to shake as she brought her hands together in front of her as if to pray. She thought of the light streaming in; she thought of spending time with her friends; she thought of her brother.

Badamon stared in astonishment as the young girl glowed green and started to emit a bright light

from her hands.

Emily's eyes shot open to reveal glowing whole green eyes. A flash of lightning blasted Badamon across the room. In retaliation, the nether spirits flew through the walls to surround Emily, keeping her trapped within a vortex of nether power.

Cuts sliced across her arms. Her nose bled without warning. Emily fell forward clutching her stomach and biting her bottom lip. She let out a blood curdling scream just before darkness consumed her.

/…/

Sekhmet walked down the hallway, trying to sort out all his thoughts. Talpa had finally divulged the information to his Dark Warlords on why Emily was still alive. To say they had been stunned was an understatement. Now he understood why she was healing so quickly and how she seemed to be getting better at defending herself in a fight.

If what Master Talpa says is true, then she could be the key to beating those ronin whelps. With them gone, she would have no reason to fight us anymore, he thought.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Kaori. There was blood on her hands and she had a panicked look on her face. She spoke rapidly, to which Sekhmet had to force her to slow down and repeat herself.

"Sugu ni kite kudasai [Please come quickly]!" she exclaimed.

"Nazedesu ka [Why?]" the confused warlord asked.

"Kanojo wa hontó no warui kega o shite imasu. Watashi wa shukketsu o tomeru koto wa dekimasen [She's hurt real bad. I can't stop the bleeding]," Kaori explained.

Despite her elderly age, the woman grabbed him and yanked him back to their rooms. Upon arriving at the living room, Sekhmet could see why the woman had been so worried. There was blood everywhere.

"Go get some water and rags."

While Kaori rushed off to comply, Sekhmet went to his room for a few things before returning to the living room. He knelt by the couch where a severely injured Emily lay. He picked up a wrist and felt for a pulse, which he was grateful to find a steady beat. Kaori soon arrived with the water and rags which she almost dropped.

"Koko de nani o yatte iru [What is that doing out here?]" Kaori demanded.

Curled up above Emily's head was the albino Burmese Python. It had its head resting below her chin with its eyes closed.

"Hanarete iku, josei [Go away, woman]," he spat.

She made a loud huff sound before placing the stuff down and storming away. He had the snake out to calm the young woman down since one of her captors _was_ tending to her wounds. Normally, he wouldn't have cared in the least but Talpa needed her alive.

He picked up the rag, dipped it in the water, and cleaned away the blood. By the time he was done cleaning all of her wounds, the basin of water was a deep red color. Emily mumbled incoherently.

Most of Emily's cuts were shallow but there were a few deep ones he had to use some of his herbs on. If this is what Emily looked like, he hated to see what the other person looked like. Come to think about it, he wasn't quite sure who had fought with her. Dais and Cale would have known better than to have gone this far in fighting her and not healing her after.

He worked silently in cleaning her up as best as he could. After a while, he noticed that some small cuts were healing from the armored ability of Halo. Pulling a blanket off the side of the couch, he draped it over Emily. He left the snake with her as he returned to his room.

Can't have the little witch catching a cold, he snarled in his mind.

Once in his room, he started working on different experiments. The next time Sekhmet looked at the time it was several hours later. He left to find something to eat. When he entered the kitchen area, he found a small casserole cooling down on the dinner table. He dished some out to eat and sat down.

Not a minute later, his fellow warlords joined them. They spoke of a few topics, switching between the different languages the three were fluent in. Kaori appeared in the living room to check up on Emily before coming into the kitchen.

"Yúshoku o arigato [Thank you for dinner]," Cale told her.

After being with the woman for as long as they had been, the three warlords knew better than to not thank her. When she had first started serving them and they hadn't offered their gratitude, they had gone a week without food. Well, that wasn't entirely true. They all just sucked at cooking. Kaori raised her eyebrows and glanced at the table.

"Watashi wa sore o shinakatta [I did not make that]."

"I did."

Four pairs of eyes snapped over to the doorway where Emily was leaning heavily on a counter, looking as though she were ready to drop. Kaori was at her side in a flash and offered to get her something to drink. Emily only asked for water which the woman bustled away to get.

"Look what the wolf coughed up," said Cale, turning his head back around to eat.

Emily glared at the back of his head but wisely chose not to say anything as Kaori brought her the glass. She took a few small sips. She almost choked on it when Sekhmet appeared by her side

without warning. He surprised her by taking her arm to roll up her sleeve to look at her arm where her bone had just barely broken through the skin before.

[Should you really be helping her?]

Sekhmet glanced at Dais with a raised eyebrow.

[Do _you_ want to be the one to tell Master Talpa that we let her die?]

Dais saw his point and returned to eating his dinner. Sekhmet applied a little pressure to the bone and was prepared for the weak kick to the back of his leg. After much silence, Cale finally spoke again.

"I'm surprised Halo hasn't figured things out yet. Must not care about his lover very much."

Sekhmet stepped back just in time before Emily spit out the water in her mouth. She coughed a little before catching her breath. Cale and Dais had their heads turned shooting her weird looks.

"*cough* What did you just *cough* call me?" she asked.

Curious about her initial reaction, Cale repeated himself. Emily's eyebrows shot up to her hairline and her mouth failed to work. She started to say something, stopped and frowned instead then brought a hand up to her mouth to hold back her laughter. Her mixture of reactions amused the warlords to no end.

[I think you broke the mortal, Cale.] Dais smirked.

[Maybe it was the way he said it. Perhaps they're not as close as we originally thought.] Sekhmet.

Emily finally calmed herself down. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and took a deep breath before standing up straight.

"_Lover_ is not the word I tend to use for Sage," she said as she reached into her jeans back pocket for something.

She pulled out a small piece of paper and limped forward to hold it out to Cale. He took it from her and turned it over.

The paper was a portrait of four blondes, three girls and a boy. There were two unfamiliar blondes in the top of the portrait. On the bottom were Sage and Emily. Emily had her arms around Sage's neck and her head leaning against his. Sage had his arms crossed over his chest and a warm smile on his face.

A sudden feeling hit Cale dead in the stomach.

/_Oh, no. This little witch cannot possibly be Halo's…_/

"Sage isn't my _lover_. He's my **brother**," Emily stated firmly.

/_…sister._/

Emily smiled gleefully at the shocked looks on the warlords' faces. She had already known they were going to be royally screwed and now they knew it, too. She snatched the photo back and turned around to limp back to the living room.

"Sage is my _older_ **brother**, not my boyfriend. Oh, gross! You three are morons," she mumbled, more to herself than them.

A sudden thought that occurred to him caused Cale to smirk. This new development changed everything. He saw his prey in a whole new light now. But one thing was for sure.

Hell hath no fury like a ronin whose sister's been snatched by a warlord.

END OF CHAPTER TEN


	11. Chapter 11

**Jennifer (Guest): **Thank you and thank you. Sorry my chapters aren't long, but these chapters have been longer than any other story I've written before. And I tried to make this chapter a little longer. It's getting close to the end so it's going to continue to get better.

**LittleMay:** Thanks so much. I hope you feel the same way towards the end of this chapter.

**Vampire Ronin: **Glad to have you still on board.

**Author's Note – Hello, all my lovely readers and reviewers! I love all the wonderful comments I am getting and the small pieces pointed out to me that I overlooked. That helps me grow as a reader and writer myself. I would especially love comments about the way I've ended this particular chapter. I wrote it a couple of different ways before settling on the way I have it. I thought I would throw in a twist.**

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Sage growled in frustration as he failed yet again to meditate. He was so sick with worry about Emily. He had followed her path a hundred times, trying in vain to look for clues that just weren't there.

/_What did I do wrong? Did I not give her enough attention? Have I been a bad brother?_/

Sage had already been given the "It's not your fault" speech from both Cye and Ryo. However, the ronin of Light couldn't get it out of his head that he should have been able to do something. Anything.

"**Well, well, the great Sage Date still keeps his word, I see."**

**Sage leaned forward to kiss his sister on the cheek.**

"**I had forgotten how much I missed that sense of humor."**

He let out a loud anguished groan. Snippets of their weekend sibling togetherness kept flashing through his head.

"**If I hear your phone ring one more time, I am going to**_** flush it**_** down the toilet."**

"**You wouldn't dare."**

"**How much are you willing to bet?"**

Suddenly, Sage let out a loud deep sigh. He felt that all he needed to do was sit down for a deep meditation and an answer would present itself to him. Sitting down in a meditative stance, Sage closed his eyes, relaxed his muscles, and emptied his mind.

Sage fell into a meditative trance almost instantly. Images flashed before his eyes of old memories of him and Emily.

Him helping her build a tree house; Emily and him gluing together a vase he broke; sweeping the floor together at the dojo.

One particular memory tugged at his heart and he lost himself into the past.

/…_Memory_…/

_Twelve year old Sage lay on the hospital bed sore and exhausted. His sisters Yayoi, 17, and Satsuki, 10, had just left with his grandfather and father. His mother would be staying with him throughout the night and was down in the cafeteria eating dinner. Suddenly, he remembered there was a person missing._

"_Where's Emily?" he pondered out loud._

_His eight year old sister was known for getting into mischief and a hospital was the worst place to do that in. Letting out a loud groan, Sage pulled the blankets back and stood up. He slipped his jeans back on and found his shoes. Slowly, Sage made his way out of the room._

_He remembered seeing her face light up at the big aquarium down the hallway and around the corner. Sage cringed as he felt pain strike through his gut. He stopped in the middle of the hallway to suck the pain back before continuing on his way. He turned the corner and could see the aquarium._

_However, a familiar laugh made him halt. He turned his head and approached the open door where he had heard the sound come from. He stopped in the doorway to look on at the sight before him._

_The room was a large, children's room full of bright colors and stuffed animals. Crowded around a small table in the middle of the room was a group of eight children, boys to be exact. They had a large collection of materials laid out over the table. Some were sitting on chairs while most of them were sitting on the floor. They appeared to be making something using the materials from the table._

_All the sudden, a small body with a familiar head of blonde hair popped out from behind the oldest in the group. Emily giggled as she reached her hands out to lay over his._

"_Then you twist it this way and pull the loop through," Emily explained._

_The boy did as instructed then held up his finished product. Sage smiled as he realized the group was making paper flowers. It was a special craft their grandmother had taught Emily how to make. Emily turned her head and spotted him in the doorway. She ran over and grabbed him by the hand._

"_Sage, come meet my new friends," she smiled._

_He allowed her to pull him along. She introduced each boy and explained their reason for being there. The sickest of them all was there over a genetic disorder and had been there a while. He sat down next to his sister as she started making a flower._

_In her typical eight year old fashion, she chatted happily about everything under the sun. Sage understood why the other boys had been drawn to the sweet little girl. She made him forget the pain and focused his mind on making the craft flowers._

_It wasn't long before someone came looking for them. The nurse gave the boys a stern look, but it quickly melted away when they each presented her with a flower. Emily walked back to Sage's room with one hand in his and her other clutching a dozen craft flowers. Luckily, their mother wasn't back yet so neither could get in trouble for the excursion._

_Sage climbed back into his bed and Emily laid down in the armchair recliner in the corner._

"_Emily?" he called softly._

_She poked her head up from underneath the warm blanket she had._

"_Sage?"_

"_You're the best, baby sister."_

_Emily giggled. Sage closed his eyes and started to go to sleep. The bed moved as he felt someone lean over him to plant a soft kiss on his forehead._

"_Feel better soon, Sage," Emily whispered._

_He fell asleep with a smile on his face._

/…_End of memory_…/

As the images continued to appear before him, he noticed a bright light seemed to grow between them. A brilliant thought suddenly came to him.

The five of us share a telepathic link because of the armors. I wonder if Emily and I share a similar bond by blood, Sage thought.

Calling upon the power of the Halo armor, Sage began concentrating on his sister. His armor's kanji for Wisdom began to glow green on his forehead.

[Emily? Emily, can you hear me?]

/…/

While Sage was downstairs meditating, Rowen was upstairs awake with a renewed energy. Cye had been right. After sleeping for a good long time, Rowen had eaten a good meal and taken a hot shower. Now he felt ready to attack the message again.

The others were sleeping so Rowen was careful to remain quiet while working. He began anew with making a list of the letters "Wa" and adding each letter of the alphabet after the 'a'. Then he proceeded to cross out the words that were obviously not the key.

Waa X

Wab X

Wac X

Wad X

Wae X

Rowen reached across his desk to pick up his glass and take a sip of water. Placing it back down, Rowen continued down the list. Once that was done, he glanced over the list of three-letter words and started writing down possible words off to the side for each.

Wak – wake up

Wal – walking, wall

Rowen paused. He stared at the paper intensely. Something had caught his eye. He scribbled down a word before putting down his pencil.

War – warlord

"It couldn't be," he mumbled. But even as he said it, he was considering the possibilities.

Aside from her phone, there was no evidence of Emily being snatched. The warlords had attacked them at Mia's house and left once they were all together, both of which were unusual for them. There was no ransom note from Emily's kidnappers.

Rowen gasped. "Holy Mother of God, it was _them_."

/…/

Sage unconsciously let out an exasperated sigh. He had been trying to call Emily in his mind for the last five minutes but no reply had come. He knew it had been a long shot, but he had to have tried. He decided to try one more time.

[Emily, _sis_, it's Sage. If you can hear me, just let me know.]

Sage held his breath and waited. He made a special prayer that his sister could hear him, wherever she was.

[_Sage?_]

Sage gasped. He couldn't believe it had worked. It was such a relief to hear his baby sister's voice.

[Emily? Emily, where are you?]

Sage began to get even more worried about Emily when her next response was quiet and muffled.

[Em, what's wrong?]

[_Been…drugged. I…can….bare..ly…focus._]

The Warrior of Light was going to murder the person that dared to drug his sister. Maintaining a calm composure, Sage spoke quietly.

[Everything's going to be okay. We're going to find you. I'm going to bring you home, sis.]

He heard a happy sigh pass from Emily to him.

[_Miss…you._]

Sage bit his bottom lip and held back a sob. His sister's voice sounded like she was not only drugged but in pain.

[I miss you, too. Hold on, Emily. We're coming. We're coming.]

Sage felt their connection break as he came out of his meditative stance. A hesitant hand lightly touched his shoulder so as not to spook him. Sage looked up into the familiar blue eyes of his best friend.

"Are you okay?"

Sage explained what he had just been able to do. Rowen immediately started to apologize except Sage interrupted him to tell him the connection had already been broken. He noticed a piece of paper in his hand.

"What is it, Rowen?" whispered Sage.

Rowen held out the piece of paper to him. "You need to look at this."

Silently, Sage accepted it and flipped it over. He looked over the list of Wa_ words then read over the notes Rowen had scribbled at the bottom. As he read down to the finish, the pieces of

the puzzle started melding together. When Sage was done, he slowly lifted his head to stare at his best friend in horror.

Everything made sense now. Even the most professional kidnappers would have left some clue behind or called for a ransom by now.

But not if you're warlords from the Nether Realm, Sage thought.

"Why didn't we see it before?" Sage asked.

Rowen shook his head while walking around his friend to sit on the coffee table in front of him.

"We didn't consider it a possibility. They've only ever come after us. We probably figured they wouldn't go after our families," Rowen explained.

Sage swore he was never letting his sister out of his sight again. He was ready to storm the dynasty _now_ and tear the warlords apart limb from limb. Rowen must have sensed his train of thought because he reached out to place his hands on Sage's shoulders.

"We'll go in the morning. We'll rescue Emily. But we can't accomplish anything if we're all dead tired. We may need the power of the Inferno and you know that, Sage."

Sage tried to shake his friend off, but the Strata Warrior only tightened his grip.

"Then let's wake the others and go _now_. We've already wasted enough time. Gods only know what they're doing to her," Sage demanded.

Again, Rowen shook his head but more firmly this time.

"I'm just as worried as you, Sage, but Cye slipped an extra-large sleeping pill into Ryo's soup. He ain't waking up before dawn and we can't risk going without all five armors."

Sage growled. After much thinking, Sage agreed it was best to wait until morning. He only prayed for the warlords' sakes that they didn't do anything to Emily that would cause him to unleash a fury to rival Ryo's temper.

/…/

Dawn approached with all the ronins except Ryo awake. During breakfast, Sage and Rowen caught Cye and Kento up on their discussion from last night. Kento was easy to convince, but it

took a little longer to show Cye all the evidence before he agreed with their end result. After sitting deathly silent for a few minutes, Sage left the table to go wake Ryo.

Once their fellow ronin was out of earshot, Cye swung around to Rowen with a spatula in hand.

"What's going on with you and Emily?"

Kento paused in his chewing of pancakes. He glanced between Cye and Rowen.

"What do ya mean, Cye?" Rowen answered.

Cye slapped the spatula down and crossed his arms over his chest angrily. The irritated look on the ronin's face was a foreign sight for Strata and Hardrock. After all, Cye was supposed to be the calm one.

"Cut the crap, Rowen. You've almost been taking this harder than Sage. Despite his behavior, Sage has been resting _and_ eating. The other day was the first time you've slept in days." Cye glared. "Spill it before _he_ gets back down here."

Rowen quickly glanced over his shoulder as if half expecting Halo to be standing there. He jerked backwards when he turned back to see both ronins waiting for an obvious answer. He put his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, _okay_." Rowen glanced one more time over his shoulder before turning back around and dropping his voice down. "Emily and I are dating."

Kento's eyes grew as big as dinner plates and his mouth threatened to drop open. Even Cye looked a little surprised. Spurred on by their silence, Rowen continued.

"We've been dating for a few months now. No one except Emily's friend Saul knows. Emily…" Rowen paused. "Emily was going to tell Sage after the camping trip."

A commotion upstairs jerked the three men out of their conversation. Rowen left to investigate while Cye started cleaning up and Kento finished eating.

"How did you know Ro and Em were dating?" Kento asked.

Cye smiled.

"I found a picture of them in Rowen's pants pocket a month ago while I was doing laundry," Cye answered.

Kento made an hmm sound in the back of his throat. Rowen was lucky it had been Cye's week to do laundry.

/…/

Meanwhile, in the dynasty, a barely coherent Emily slowly moved her head to the side. Her head felt heavier than the stupid python. She jerked slightly when a cold, rough hand moved a strand of hair behind her ear.

She peeked her eyes open, but snapped them shut with the glaring light of a nearby candle. The light only intensified the pain wracking through her head. The hand moved down to her throat to pull down the bandana still hanging loosely around her neck. It moved back up to her throat where Emily thought for a fleeting second that she was going to be choked.

However, two fingers prodded at where the carotid artery was between her wind pipe and neck muscle. They pressed at her artery firmly, but not enough to cut off her oxygen. She gasped and tried to weakly bat the hand away, but another hand grabbed hers by the wrist. The hand pushed her arm back down onto the bed and gave her wrist a tight squeeze before letting go.

Emily wisely chose to keep her hands down as the person finished taking her pulse. Finally, the hand was taken away.

[Her heart rate is a little weaker than normal, but not by much. She's disoriented and her head seems to bother her. The presence of light irritates it more.]

[Good. It seems to have worked.]

[When will it wear off?]

[A few hours. Probably around lunch.]

In the short time of silence, Emily started to fall back asleep when she felt a cold, light kiss on her cheek. She jerked her head slightly to the side again to back away from the touch but a steady hand held the side of her face. She felt her skin crawl as a thumb gently rubbed her cheek.

"What a shame his experiment has dulled your senses and speech. I do so enjoy that fiery tongue of yours," whispered an eerie voice, the breath heating her ear up slightly.

Emily felt the hand at her throat again. The thumb started rolling circles on the side of her throat. For once in her life, she was starting to feel claustrophobic over how close the warlord was. The person turned their head away unexpectedly and the thumb on her throat stilled.

After a few seconds had passed, another kiss was placed on her cheek and the hand left her throat.

"Master Talpa's calling, but I'll be back, little light."

The warlord left and Emily let a loud sigh of relief. She rolled over on her side and pulled the blanket up over part of her face. She curled up into a ball before burying her face into her pillow. Finally, after days of physical and mental torture, Emily allowed herself to break down into tears.

I want my brother. _I want __**Sage**_, Emily cried quietly to herself.

Her body was so overwhelm from exhaustion from the drugging and the beating from the nether spirits that it didn't take long for her to fall fast asleep. Unfortunately, sleep would not prove to be a safe haven as nightmares continuously plagued her throughout the morning rest.

END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN

**Oooh, which one of the warlords could have done that? *points above***


	12. Chapter 12

**LittleMay: **I wonder, I wonder. This chapter may give you more of a clue as to which warlord it was.

**Vampire Ronin:** OOPS. Need to check over the chapters a little closer. Aren't Sage and Rowen awesome? I figured I would throw in that twist since they were physically harming her. That and they were trying another tactic to draw the ronin power out of her. Uhh…I couldn't decide what reason would cause Sage to stay overnight at the hospital so I decided to go with the old "We're not sure what's wrong so we're going to keep him overnight for observation." I am going to say he ate something and it seemed to greatly upset his system.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Warning – There is a very funny part towards the end of the story. You are warned in case you're having a drink while reading this. Enjoy!**

CHAPTER TWELVE

To say Sage was pissed was an understatement. It had taken the entire day for the ronins to reach a dynasty gate and get through to the nether realm. They had been forced to camp for the night before moving on to take on the dynasty the next morning.

Off in the distance, Sage could just make out a small outline of the dynasty castle. He had tried moving on twice but his friends had tackled him to the ground and had refused to let him up until he promised not to leave.

Rowen walked up the hill to stand next to Sage. The others had finally convinced him to tell Sage the truth. He had argued that now might not be the best time, but Cye had pointed out that there was no time like the present.

"Sage, I need to tell you something," Rowen said.

Sage turned his head to look at him with a raised eyebrow, cueing him on to continue.

"Emily was supposed to tell ya something when her camping trip was over. But I guess I should be the one to tell ya," Rowen explained.

Sage crossed his arms over his chest with an eerie calm composure. This caused Rowen to stop and reconsider his decision. It was Sage that finally broke the silence.

"You got Emily pregnant, didn't you?" Sage said bluntly in a steady voice.

Rowen stared at Sage in horror with large eyes. He started stuttering, trying in vain to figure out what to say in response. Suddenly, Sage's face broke out in a small grin which scared Rowen even more. Sage reached out a hand to pat his friend on the shoulder.

"I've been suspecting for a long time that you two were together. Plus, Emily jokingly told me the weekend I spent with her," Sage said with a small chuckle. "It's okay, Ro."

"You're not mad?" Rowen asked astonished.

Sage shook his head.

"I have every right as Emily's older brother to ward off all suitors I don't see fit. I've known you for a very long time, Rowen, and I already know the type of person you are. Plus you make Emily happy." Sage shrugged. "Why wouldn't I want you to date my sister?"

Rowen felt his head spinning. And he thought Emily was confusing at times.

This will seriously take some getting used to, Rowen thought.

/…/

Emily adjusted the volume on her mp3 before turning back to her casserole. Thanks to Sekhmet's drugging, Emily hadn't woken up until an hour ago. The only thing she was thankful about being drugged was she was almost fully healed and now she was able to put her plan into action.

She had been a little nervous about it, but Kaori had assured her the warlords wouldn't be back until later. Something about an enraged Talpa.

"Personally, I hope he fries their butts," Emily mumbled.

She allowed the calming lyrics of Enya to wash over her as she prepared the casserole. She picked up a spice, took one whiff of it and threw it behind her into the trash can. Whatever the Hell that was, it had obviously gone bad many a year ago.

Emily mixed together a few spices and herbs in a small bowl before adding it to the casserole. It was organized neatly before being stuffed in the oven. Emily cleaned up her mess and stowed away all the spices and herbs.

Pausing in the middle of the kitchen with her mp3 in between songs, Emily slowly brought her hand up to her cheek. She could still remember his icy touch yet it seemed to have left a burning feeling behind. At this moment in time, Emily wanted nothing more than to be with her family.

Smiling, Emily remembered how relieved she had been to hear her brother's voice. His voice had come to her much like the stranger with a soft voice whispering at the back of her mind. At first, she had thought it was his voice, but then coherency had slipped in for a few seconds and she had recognized her brother's voice.

Shaking her head, Emily turned off her mp3 and stored it away in her backpack. After the casserole was done, she carefully pulled it out and set it on the kitchen table. She left out plates and silverware before departing the kitchen.

For her plan to work, she was going to need more sleep. She wandered out into the living room where she laid down on the couch and promptly went right to sleep. It was sometime later when she jerked awake from a particularly vivid nightmare. She started to rise, but paused when she heard voices in the kitchen.

Without making a sound, she slowly laid her head back down and listened. It sounded like all three of them were back, even though she was only hearing two voices. She listened closely to their conversation.

"Thought you said it would only last until mid-day," Cale said.

"And I also said it was an experiment. It was supposed to draw out the power of the ronin armors yet all it did was speed up her recovery. She obviously was awake long enough to move out there before falling back to sleep," Sekhmet replied.

Emily's eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open. That…that…that _scumbag_ had used one of his experiments on her?

I hope to high heaven that karma comes around soon to give them third-degree burns, Emily thought angrily.

She slammed her eyes shut and did her best to calm her breathing and heart rate when she heard someone approaching from along the side of the couch. She almost flinched when a hand touched her throat. It took her a moment to relax when she realized the hand was smaller than she had anticipated; it was Kaori.

"Kanojo wa mada nemutte iru [She is still asleep]."

Emily almost smiled. The woman had obviously lied since the young woman was not calm enough to feign sleep. Kaori patted Emily gently on the head before leaving the living room. Emily curled up her legs and prayed that none of the warlords came over to her.

Apparently, luck was not on her side as she heard the warlords finish dinner and enter the living room. One of them sat down at the end of the couch while another sat in an armchair nearby. The last one sat down in front of her while leaning their back against the couch. She felt her skin crawl as the closest warlord reached his arm back to pull her hair behind her ear.

I wonder if he would turn around and kill me if I hit him in the back of the head with a palm heel strike, Emily pondered silently.

She did everything in her power to keep them from detecting she was awake.

"Hard to believe the little light tore Badamon apart that well," the warlord on the couch said.

The warlord in front of her kept his hand steady partially behind the ear the hair had been tucked behind. His chuckle caused vibrations to shake her slightly. Emily thought she was going to be sick right then and there.

I wonder if they'd buy it that I'm still asleep while tossing my cookies, Emily thought nastily.

"She's been here long enough that I'm not surprised by anything she does anymore," he said.

"She's only been here a little over a week," the warlord sitting the furthest away pointed out.

"Exactly."

Emily tried to fall asleep to escape their presence; however, she couldn't push herself to do that with them actually present. Knowing her nightmares were probably the product of a warlord, Emily twitched a little and moved slightly as if having a nightmare.

"Your nightmares seem to still be working. Anything in particular?"

"The ronins dying while she watches; Halo sacrificing himself for her; the usual."

It was going to be a long night.

/…/

Emily pushed the arm away from her and sat up on the couch. She had had to wait quite a while, but the three of them had finally conked out. Glancing at each one of them, she nodded her head in a satisfied manner.

"You all won't be waking up anytime soon," she said as she maneuvered her way off and around the couch.

She retrieved her backpack from the bathroom to gather all her materials together. She pulled out her dark pullover and pulled it over her head. Emily drew her hair back before pulling up her hood. Stopping short in the hallway, Emily tried to figure out what to do next.

All doorways led to hallways which led to dynasty soldiers. Emily knew she could take down a few soldiers, but there were more of them than her.

"Mado no soto o iku [Go out the window.]"

Emily sprung forward and turned around in a fluid motion to form a defensive stance. Kaori stood in the middle of the hallway with a lit candle in hand. Emily dropped her arms to stand upright.

"What?" Emily whispered.

Kaori repeated herself before gesturing towards the kitchen. Emily glanced in that direction, looked back over at Kaori, and then walked closer to the kitchen. There was a small but sizeable window just above the sink.

Emily turned around to thank Kaori and found the elderly woman gone. Not wanting to waste any time, the young blonde strode over to the kitchen sink. Reaching up, she unlatched the window and pushed it open. She stepped up into the sink and crawled out the window.

She was very grateful they were on the ground floor. She closed the window behind her before moving along the outside corridor. Luck seemed to have returned as she came across no soldiers on the outside grounds. Keeping her head down and dodging the moonlight, Emily made it to the path where the two rows of cherry blossoms were.

Let's see if my guide was right about astral projecting and it wasn't just a dream, Emily thought.

She walked down the pathway cautiously. Even though she knew approximately how long the warlords would be knocked out for, she didn't move very fast. She enjoyed the cool night air and freedom. It made her feel more at ease.

The walk seemed to flash by quickly as she found the bridge and crossed it to the other side. She walked up the hill and stopped at the top. Glancing around, she wasn't surprised there was no one there.

"How could I dream something I've never seen?" she wondered.

"It wasn't a dream, child."

Emily jerked her head up to see a figure step out from behind a tree. He was dressed in clothes odd to her and carried a staff that clanged while he walked.

"The ronins have come," he said.

Emily's face lit up. She had been hoping they would be coming to find her.

"Why have you helped me? How do you know my brother and the others are here?" she asked.

The man smiled. He waved his hand towards the tree. Emily followed his path and sat down to lean her back against the tree. Laying his staff down, he sat down across from her.

"I have been watching the ronin warriors for some time and guiding them when possible. I have been helping you because Talpa must not obtain the power you possess. The power level of the ronins armors residing within you could cause him to gain his full armor back. That could spell doom for the mortal realm," he explained.

Emily felt an empty feeling. The knowledge that she could bring about such a change in the war with Talpa made her feel terrible. The man must have sensed her true feelings for he held out a hand to her. Hesitantly, Emily reached her hand out to lay her hand in his. He brought his other hand to sandwich hers between both of his hands. The warm touch seemed to relax her.

"This is meant to be a gift, not a curse or burden. You're very special, Emily. You were meant to do great things," he promised.

Emily smiled weakly before giggling.

"Is there any way you could make that not sound like a fortune cookie?"

The man chuckled while patting the top of Emily's hand. He brought his hand up touch her cheek lightly.

"I have a gift for you, child."

Taking his hands away, he put his hand into his pocket to pull out a necklace. He motioned her to move closer in which she leaned forward. He hooked it around her neck and closed the clasp.

Emily leaned back and pulled her hair out so the chain could lie against the back of her neck. Looking down, she picked up the necklace in her hand to gaze down at it. At the end of the chain was a circle with a Celtic knot at the bottom of the circle. The outline of the circle was a beautiful mixture of colors with amber yellow, a small dash of green at the top, and a small dash of brown at the bottom.

"This will help you mask the power you possess. It will dampen it considerably, but it will not prevent you from being able to use it. The dynasty will not have the ability to detect you," he explained.

"It's beautiful," she murmured.

"Keep it close to your heart," he advised. "But do not let Talpa or his warlords see it. You must keep it hidden from sight."

Emily let it drop gently against her chest before tucking it away under her shirt. She squinted up one eye as she regarded her new friend.

"Why?"

"They will know the symbol for what it is. They will know I have given it to you."

The young blonde stared at him confused. She wasn't confused by what he said; she was confused about how she trusted him so easily.

"You're doing so much for me and yet I don't know your name," she whispered.

"I'm known simply as The Ancient One."

Emily brought a hand up to her mouth while she stared shocked.

/…/

A short time later, Emily was walking through a meadow of tall grass in the direction of the ronins. After speaking a little more with The Ancient One, Emily had stood up and proclaimed she wasn't going to wait around for the ronins to come to her. He had pointed her in the direction she would find them and wished her luck.

Looking up in the sky, she frowned in realization that it was impossible to tell the time. Luckily enough her watch was still operating and it informed her it was getting close to dawn for the mortal realm.

My sleep cycle has become so royally screwed up, she thought with a small yawn.

Pushing her way through the grass, Emily came to a clearing where she spotted a familiar large shadow. She brought two fingers to her lips before letting out a single, long whistle. The shadow moved its head before running towards her.

Her face broke out in a smile when the shadow cleared to reveal White Blaze. She knelt down in time for the tiger to slide to a stop in front of her. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his fur.

"Oh, White Blaze, am I glad to see you!"

The tiger let out a low rumble of agreement as he nuzzled his head on top of hers. She giggled before letting him go.

"If you're here, that must mean the guys aren't far away," she said, standing.

"White Blaze! Where are you?"

Emily had never been so relieved in her life to hear Ryo's voice. She lit up even more when he walked around a tree. He stopped frozen when he saw who his companion had found. He smiled wide, started to say something, but then turned his head and cupped his hands together.

"Guys, come see what Blaze found!"

Emily soon found herself engulfed in a tight group hug and led to a small camping site. She sat next to her brother who had a firm grip on her hand. White Blaze laid down on the other side of her so he could lay his head down in her lap. Sage put his other arm around Emily's shoulders and hugged her tightly.

He whispered apologies to her in a quiet murmur. She patted her brother on the head in acceptance of his apologetic nature. He lifted his head and spoke.

"What happened?" Sage asked.

Emily explained about the weird feeling at the University and on the bus. She told the ronins of how they had cornered her in the park; running from them, waking up in the dungeons, and everything else that followed afterwards.

"This has been the worst break from school in my life! I've been chained to a wall, smacked from here to there, chased down hallways, had to hold Sekhmet's snake, oh God!" Emily said, slapping a hand over her eyes.

Hearing silence, Emily removed her hand to see five pairs of shocked expressions staring at her. Sage's expression was mixed with a murderous look while Rowen simply looked unsure of how to react. Now it was Emily's turn to be confused.

"What? _What_?" she exclaimed.

It was Cye who found his voice first.

"What…what was that last thing you said?" Cye inquired.

Emily frowned. "Oh, God?"

"Before that."

"Chased down hallways?"

"He means the part about you holding Sekhmet's snake!" Kento exclaimed, finally able to find his voice as well.

Emily's frown deepened. She would have thought they would react to hearing the warlords had been physically hurting her. She shrugged.

"It wasn't _that_ big a deal. I've held one before."

They each had a different reaction to that particular comment. Cye brought a hand up to his open mouth while Kento shot thumbs up to Rowen who was hiding his face in his hands. Ryo was shaking his head with a hand resting against his forehead. Sage had the most interesting reaction. He was boiling over with a calm anger with an eye twitching.

The ronin bearer of Halo couldn't believe what he was hearing. How could he have not known this? He was _never_ letting his youngest sister out of his sight again.

"In the school biology lab, on the football field, at the park. Pretty much anywhere I can sit and get a good grip on one. They're really easy to find. I've mostly held small ones and medium-sized ones," she continued.

Sage thought he was going to be sick. He did not need to be hearing this. Sekhmet was _going to __**die.**_ Then he was going to lock his sister in the house and never let her out again.

Judging by the reactions on the others' faces, they hadn't been suspecting something like this to be spouting from his innocent little sister's mouth. Glancing at his best friend, he noticed Rowen's face was now a deep red as he peeked his face out from between his fingers.

Finally, Emily had enough with their expressions and silence.

"What in Heaven's name has gotten into all of you? The stupid warlord placed a _ten_ _foot, heavy_ Albino Burmese Python in my lap. I couldn't very well shove it off! The serpent was wrapped around my body for Heaven's sake!"

Her confusion started to turn into a painful migraine when all five warriors let out loud, obvious sighs of relief. She tried to question them, but they all immediately clammed up. She crossed her arms over her chest irritated but let it go as she leaned her head on her brother's armored shoulder; the five of them were temporarily stuck in their subarmors.

"So how did you escape the warlords?" Kento asked with a big grin on his face, breaking the silence again.

Emily grinned before turning her head to look at her brother then glanced at the others.

"I made dinner which successfully knocked them out cold. They're a lot easier to handle when they're unconscious," she grinned.

Sage let a few small chuckles escape before he broke out in a full-pledged laugh. Knowing full well why her brother was laughing, Emily joined him in a good, therapeutic round of sibling laughter. They eventually stopped to the point that Sage was wiping tears away from his eyes and Emily let out a few short hiccups.

Once the two had calmed down, Rowen brought his hands down from his face and questioned them on their behavior.

"Emily fed the warlords our grandfather's special cold-flu casserole," Sage said.

Kento questioned them about its name and what it did.

"It's a special mixture of herbs and spices made to clear out the sinuses and sooth the stomach, hence the name cold-flu. However…" Emily paused.

The two siblings shared a grin. Emily took in a deep breath before finishing.

"However, anyone who doesn't have a cold or flu and eats the casserole regrets it in the morning. They wake up with one Hell of a headache which reminds me." Emily paused to look at her brother again. "I have to put five bucks in the cookie jar at home."

Now it was Sage's turn to frown. The others winced. On their last visit to the Date family house, they had discovered that the cookie jar at their house did not contain cookies; it contained money. It was a consequence for the Date family siblings for swearing with Emily in particular. She had to deposit a certain amount of money in the jar every time she cursed.

Soon the six of them started planning their next steps. They knew they couldn't just leave with Emily or send Emily alone to the dynasty gate. As the four moons of the nether realm disappeared to reveal a lighter sky, they knew they didn't have much time.

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE

If you want to know what Emily's necklace looks like, here's how to find it: St. Andrews - Shop - Pendants - Spiritual Pendant. Sorry I can't list the link. The program won't let me list it which is so odd.


	13. Chapter 13

**LittleMay: **They never figured the warlords would have pets. Plus they're all like older brothers to her so naturally their minds go to the assumption of what they [the warlords] had been doing to Emily.

**Vampire Ronin:** Got to love those older brothers! I like that idea for Sage. Definitely works for me. I think the reason for the word omission was I kept switching that sentence around. Hmm, so you picked up on that. I wondered who would comment first on it. That question won't be answered until the sequel.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the first of the last three chapters of "Little Sister, Big Trouble." My summer is over as of Wednesday so my updates will come less often based on how much time I have to work on chapters for the sequel. This story's been done since I started posting it. I just want reviews.**

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I swear to the nether spirits I will prolong her torture for an eternity, Cale growled to himself.

The three warlords had woken up disoriented and with the worst pounding headaches of their lifetimes. It had taken a special brew of Sekhmet's to stem off the headaches. Soon after, it had quickly been discovered Emily was gone.

They had been forced to report her disappearance to Master Talpa who had promptly shocked them before sending them out after her.

"Which way would she have gone? It's not as if the girl knows her way around," Dais mused.

Cale gazed to the north where he knew a dynasty gate was on the other side of the castle. Based on how she had left (he had found the kitchen window slightly cracked open), she couldn't have known about it. This meant she would have gone in a different direction.

The three warlords split up in the other three directions. Whoever found her would alert the others. Cale scanned the cherry blossom trees, but there was no sight of her. Narrowing his eyes, he continued on the path to the bridge. While running across the bridge, Cale knew she couldn't have escaped the nether realm.

Emily did not have the ability to open a dynasty gate which meant she would need a dynasty soldier or one of the warlords to open it. Cale hadn't gone far after the end of the bridge when he spotted something high up in a tree. Narrowing his gaze, he recognized it for what it was; a mop of blonde hair.

[Found her.]

In an instant, Dais and Sekhmet appeared beside him. He held a finger up to his lips before pointing to where their target was. The three of them spread out at the base of the tree with Sekhmet and Dais staying out of her field of sight from where she was perched.

"We know where you are, little light. Why don't you come down and play?" he called in a teasing voice.

The figure in the tree swiftly moved from the high branch to a lower one yet still remained in the tree. Cale let out a dark chuckle while moving closer to the tree. He still couldn't fully see Emily, but he would recognize that blonde hair anywhere.

"I'll even give you a free swing at me, little light," Cale said, knowing she would take the opportunity.

The Warlord of Corruption was prepared for her to throw something at him. He was even prepared for her to swing down and smack him with her backpack. What he wasn't ready for was

an armored foot to smack him in the chest, throwing him backwards.

The other two warlords snapped their attention to where Emily should have been standing. Instead of the brash young woman, her brother stood in her place.

"I don't take too kindly to my sister being kidnapped," Sage snarled.

Dais and Sekhmet summoned their armors just as Ryo, Cye and Kento sprung out from their hiding places. Cale smirked as he summoned his armor. He leveled his sword at his armored foe.

"Your sister was a most pleasant guest. What a pity you won't be able to prevent us from bringing her back," he said.

Sage raised his sword, poised to strike.

"Like Hell you are."

/…/

Rowen hugged Emily close to him. The poor girl had fallen asleep only a few minutes ago. They were riding on top of White Blaze with Emily curled up in her boyfriend's arms. The three of them were on their way to the dynasty gate the ronins had entered the nether realm through.

Emily moved a little closer to Rowen and nuzzled under his neck. Rowen smiled. He had missed her greatly. One of the things he enjoyed the most was when they just laid on a couch at the University Student Union. Emily would just rest in his arms for hours. They would talk quietly and sometimes take a short nap.

Rowen was broken out of his thoughts when Emily suddenly jerked upwards and almost plummeted off of White Blaze. Rowen tightened his grip on Emily, but this seemed to make things worse as Emily fought against him.

"Let go of me!" she yelled, shaking against him violently.

White Blaze slowed to a stop as Rowen slid off his back and pulled Emily into his lap. He surprised himself by being able to shed his subarmor back into his clothes and started whispering reassurances in his girlfriend's ear. White Blaze turned his head around to nuzzle the back of Emily's head while letting out a low whine.

It took Rowen several minutes but soon he was able to calm Emily down and wake her. She turned her head around in confusion before realization hit her. Emily turned her head back around to bury her face in Rowen's shirt.

"'m sowwy," she mumbled into his chest.

Rowen kissed the top of her head.

"It's okay, Emily. You've had nightmares before," Rowen whispered.

Emily shook her head. She picked her head up to gaze at Rowen's face.

"Not like these. I've been having night terrors and nightmares for the last few days. The nightmares are just as bad as the night terrors. They're so vivid and frightening; it starts to blur the lines of reality for me," she murmured.

Rowen tried again to reassure her that she would be okay except Emily kept refusing to accept it.

"One of the warlords is doing it. I don't know which one, but one of them is sending the night terrors and nightmares to me. They have been mentally and physically exhausting me. I won't be able to rest until they leave me alone."

Words could not come to Rowen so he simply replied by pulling her back to him. Emily took in a very deep breath in order to suppress a sob. Shifting her body, Emily lifted a hand to scratch White Blaze behind the ears.

"Good boy," she whispered.

Soon the two were able to stand and continued on their way. They knew they couldn't stay much longer in the nether realm. The plan was to get Emily back to the mortal realm, have her hide somewhere familiar to them but not the warlords, and have Rowen return to aid his friends.

They walked hand-in-hand with White Blaze walking on the other side of Emily. Rowen started talking about different topics to keep Emily's mind off of everything.

"You have final exams in a few days, right?" Rowen asked.

Emily nodded.

"I've only studied a little bit in the last few weeks. I'm worried about my Chemistry exam more than anything else," she confessed.

"I'm sure I can help you study for that," he said.

Emily smiled at him.

"I'd like that."

The two lapped into silence again as they continued walking. They were getting close to the gate when White Blaze suddenly stopped and jumped behind Emily. The two jerked around behind them only to find nothing wrong.

"What is it, White Blaze?" Rowen asked.

Emily closed her eyes and listened. It was obvious the tiger was hearing something at a decibel level her and Rowen couldn't hear.

It must be Sage and the others, Emily thought.

In an instant, Emily astral projected herself back to where the ronins were. Her astral self appeared behind the tree her brother had perched in. She peeked around the tree carefully so as not to be seen. She slapped a hand over her mouth to hide a gasp.

Ryo and Cye were back in their subarmors unconscious on the ground. Kento was starting to lose his fight with Dais and Sage was solo in his fight against the other two warlords.

/_Emily! Emily!_/

With great difficulty, Emily ignored Rowen's yelling of her name. She watched in horror as Sekhmet launched his attack against Sage. He dodged it but never saw the black lightning coming.

She let out a silent scream as she forced her astral body back to her physical body. Her eyes snapped back open to find Rowen staring at her concerned.

"Em, are you okay? What just happened?" he asked.

She turned her terror-filled gaze to the blue haired warrior.

"You have to go back. They're losing!" Emily exclaimed.

Rowen placed both hands on her shoulders to turn her to face him fully.

"How could you know that?" he gasped.

Emily shook her head as she brought her hands up to grasp Rowen's wrists.

"I'll explain later. _Please_ go back," she said in a pleading voice.

Rowen wouldn't budge as he moved his hands to cup Emily's face. He shook his head softly.

"I promised Sage I would protect you and I'm not about to break that promise."

Tears started to appear in her eyes. She knew how strong the ronins were as a team, but now they were divided because of her. They couldn't summon the Inferno armor because of her. They could lose their armors and lives **because of her**.

"_Go_. Break that promise. _Go, Rowen_."

It broke Rowen's heart to see Emily so broken and in obvious distress, but he refused to break his promise to his best friend. His protesting stopped suddenly. Oh no.

Rowen threw his arms around Emily's waist and jumped from their spot. A crash of bright green spikes of light lit up the ground where they had just been standing.

"Armor of the Strata, Dao Inokey!"

As soon as he landed on the ground and released Emily, Rowen dashed in the direction of where the attack had come from. Emily looked up to see him in fierce battle with Dais and Sekhmet.

[_Emily, get out of here! Take White Blaze with you!_]

The mental plea shook the young blonde out of her shock of seeing the warlords again so soon after escaping.

"Come on, White Blaze!"

Emily and White Blaze dashed away from the battleground but were stopped short by a hoard of dynasty soldiers. Emily suddenly felt insulted.

I've had to fight all three warlords for the last eight days and they send soldiers to stop me? This is surely an insult, Emily thought as she jumped up and kicked a soldier in the head.

To increase her agility, Emily dropped her backpack to the ground and flipped up in the air to knock another soldier out in the head. White Blaze dove through two soldiers before grabbing a spear in his mouth and throwing another soldier to the ground. White Blaze fell behind Emily as she took out dynasty soldiers.

She finished off the last soldier and stood up straight from its smoking body.

"Geez, I'm getting tired of these things," she growled.

A mournful cry from the large feline caused Emily to whip back around. The tiger was lying on the ground in obvious pain. Emily didn't have enough time to react before a strong pair of armored hands yanked her back against an armored chest. Normally Emily would have fought tooth and nail to break free.

However, she was prevented from being able to even struggle by two katanas. One was ever so lightly touching her throat and the other crossed over her body with barely touching her arms which laid at her side.

"You're not going anywhere, girl," Sekhmet sneered.

"Bastard," Emily snarled.

He laughed as he forced Emily to turn her gaze upward by moving his blades up and in closer. Emily's gaze shot to the sky where Rowen was locked in battle with Dais. It was obvious he hadn't noticed the Warlord of Venom's absence.

"Soon Strata will join your brother and the other ronin warriors in Master Talpa's dungeons," he said, his hot breath burning her ear.

When this is all over, I am going to take the longest shower of my life, Emily thought.

"Burn in Hell," she growled.

She hissed as the heat of his blades pressed into her skin. He pressed them just hard enough to not yet draw blood. Emily didn't care what he did; he wouldn't dare do anything too damaging with his precious Master still wanting something from her.

"How's your head?" she said, goading him on.

At the same time she said something, Rowen raised an arrow to launch his surekill at Dais. All in a flash, Sekhmet dropped one of his blades into its sheath and forced one of Emily's hands open. With a slight of hand, he forced her other hand to grasp his katana. He forced her to close her first hand around the blade before roughly pulling it through and out. The blade tore clean through the skin of her palm, creating a deep wound in the center.

Rowen's heart stopped at the loud scream of Emily. It was the sound of pure agony from a defenseless person. It was to be a sound that would haunt Rowen for a long time. Seizing the opportunity, Dais launched his own surekill and Rowen hit the ground hard. His armor faded into his subarmor after he hit the ground.

Despite a throbbing pain behind his eyes and his weakened state, Rowen attempted to stand except an armored foot on his back and a blade at the back of his neck prevented him from doing so. He stared in horror across the field.

Sekhmet had Emily in a tight hold. There was blood streaming freely from Emily's hand. He could see a small line of purple mixed in with the red.

Oh, gods! He's poisoned Emily, Rowen thought.

That was his last thought before Dais knocked him out cold.

END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN

**Just two more chapters to go. Since I got two reviews so quickly, I wanted to post another chapter. It's funny that I seem to have a lot more readers than I do reviewers. Come on, people! We're in the home stretch here.**


	14. Chapter 14

**RAMBO112: **Oh my word, a new reviewer! YEAH! Oh, thank you. It feels really good to have readers/reviewers who enjoy reading my stories.

**Vampire Ronin:** I would love them as brothers too. Sequel, yes. I've already got that started and the story idea for the third story in the series. I was figuring that the ronins let their anger get in the way and they forgot that the warlords had the hometown advantage.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Anyone get the license plate of the bus that ran me over?" Rowen groaned as consciousness slowly returned to him.

"Yeah. It said W-A-R-L-O-R-D."

Rowen snapped his eyes open with surprise. He found himself hanging from the wall in a large throne room with chains wrapped tight around his body. Looking from his left to right, he saw the other ronins chained to the wall as well. He snapped his attention to Sage who was silent next to him with his eyes closed.

"Man, Sage, I'm sorry. I tried to get her out of here," Rowen murmured.

"Leave him be, Ro. He's been trying to connect with Emily through their link," Cye said from his other side.

"He can't reach her?" Rowen asked.

Cye shook his head. Rowen looked above him where his arms were tied at the wrists and pulled at his restraints. If he hadn't been in his subarmor, the chains would have already ripped through his skin.

[Save your strength.]

Rowen stopped and looked back at Cye. Why did his friend swap from speech to the mind link?

[Ryo's channeling his armor and burning the chains. We'll be free soon.]

All the sudden, a piercing scream echoed into the throne room from a nearby hallway. None of them wanted to admit it, but they all knew there was only one person the scream could belong to. It tore at their hearts with the knowledge that something was happening to Emily.

"Ah, man! What are they doing to her?" Kento snarled.

Sage opened the mind link all the way to his sister and was able to see from her point of view. His kanji of Wisdom glowed brighter than ever before. Cale was sitting and holding Emily from behind with one arm around her waist and the other up the length of her body. He had her head turned into him, now muffling her screams. Dais had an arm across her knees and was holding one of her arms down. Sekhmet had Emily's other arm in his tight grasp and was drawing the poison out of her hand.

Sage cringed. He could feel Emily's pain as more blood oozed out and the poison was purged. Every few seconds, the warlords would tighten their grips just before Emily had a spasm, trying in vain to halt the procedure. He could feel Cale hissing something into her/his ear, but couldn't decipher what he was saying. The one message was loud and clear, emanating from the very mind he had connected to.

/_Make it stop!_/

Regretfully, Sage broke the link and opened his eyes. Tears filled his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He told the others what he had seen.

"They're healing her?" Kento said, puzzled.

Hesitantly, Sage nodded.

"More or less. I don't know why. They have us captive. What purpose would they have for saving Emily?" Sage replied, silently hating himself for saying such a thing.

"I don't know," Ryo said. "But we'll be free in just a minute."

As he said this, the others could feel the chains slackening and they were lowered a little before stopping. They immediately froze up and snapped to attention at Talpa's sudden arrival. The floating head was both creepy and disturbing, not to mention the power of their armors were reacting to being so close to him.

"The ronin warriors are finally within my grasp. Soon your armors will be mine and you will be no more," he taunted.

"There's no way you're getting our armors!" Kento shouted.

"It's useless to fight me. Now with Sage of the Halo's sister back within my power, I will possess the power to take the armors back and take over the mortal realm," Talpa chuckled.

They stared at him and each other in confusion. What power? Emily didn't possess an armor. It was true she was related to Sage who did have an armor, but what in the world could Talpa be talking about?

Their confusion intensified when the warlords appeared with Emily in the center of the throne room. They disappeared then reappeared just below the ronins. For the first time since meeting the ronins, the warlords ignored them in favor of giving their full attention to their dark master and his prey.

Emily was chained to the floor with her arms tied in front of her. There was a bandage with fresh blood over her left hand. The glare she shot over her shoulder at the warlords was cold enough to give the ronins the chill. If you were to ask the four ronins not related to her, they would have

said the icy stare reminded them strongly of the silent rage her brother sometimes was prone to.

"You ronin warriors have been foolish with letting Halo's sister near you in battle. The power of the armors has left a lasting effect on her, making her the perfect addition to the dynasty."

Sage saw red. Hell would have to freeze over before he allowed Talpa or his warlords to keep his sister captive here. Apparently, his sister felt the same way.

"That's not going to happen!" Emily yelled, struggling against her bonds.

"You do not have a choice. Once I drain the power of the ronin armors from your body, the ronins warriors will not be able to stop me," laughed the tyrant.

The ronins wanted nothing more than drop something on the warlords' heads when they too

laughed. They still weren't sure of what Talpa was talking about but they knew it had to do with Emily and their armors.

"This young spirit has kept close to the armors in battle and their power has stayed with her. You know not of the true power you possess. Her connection is stronger with the Halo armor, but each of the ronin armors live within her soul."

Emily didn't like the idea of the demon "purging" the ronin power from her _soul_. It sounded like a painful and ugly procedure, one of which she was not about to endure. Thoughts of what would happen if Talpa's plan was successful filtered through her mind. There was no doubt in her mind that she would never leave the dynasty if she didn't do something. All the sudden, an idea popped into her head.

"You're not getting it, Talpa! I gave the power back to the ronins. Your warlords didn't get to me in time!" Emily shouted, hoping he wouldn't see through her lie.

Talpa turned his full attention to the girl. It was impossible! The girl could not have had enough time to transfer the power from herself to the ronins. His eyes glowed red and a red light enveloped Emily. She turned her head from side to side, trying to figure out what was happening.

Meanwhile, Ryo finally burned clean through the chains. As they dropped down, the ronins silently summoned their armors and subdued the warlords. In mid-fall, Ryo pushed off from the wall and dashed for Emily.

Suddenly, Emily bent over forward with a silent scream. She felt as if her heart was being squeezed. Her heartbeat started to slow down and she found herself unable to grasp a breath.

"Then I am no longer in need of you!"

Ryo drew his swords as he sprinted for Emily. He could feel her life force draining and he pushed himself to reach her in time.

"EMILY!"

A white light filled the throne room and then there was nothing.

/…/

It was late when Mia pulled up into the driveway. She had been gone longer than she had meant to, but in hindsight it had been a break from the normal routine. She cut the engine, turned off the lights, and climbed out of the jeep.

Walking up the back steps to the kitchen, Mia fumbled with her keys before finding the right key to jab into the lock. She paused at the sight of a note sticking out from the kitchen door. She snatched it up as she opened the door and flicked on the kitchen lights.

_Mia,_

_We hope to be back before you see this letter. We've gone to the dynasty. We had no choice but to go. We will tell you more when we get back._

_Cye_

Mia frowned. What reason could they have had for returning _there_? She walked out of the kitchen and started to turn on the living room lights, but stopped when she noticed the television was on.

Walking closer to the couch, she noticed the coffee table had been replaced with a large pile of pillows and blankets. Upon closer inspection, she realized that there was a tangle of limbs on the floor amongst the pillows and blankets. Lying on the floor was Cye, Kento, Sage and Ryo. Mia brought a hand up to her mouth to hide her smile.

It almost seemed cute. Ryo had his head buried underneath his pillow and was pulling the covers back away from Kento. The burly ronin was lying backwards with his feet on his pillow. Cye was curled up with part of his face hidden by the blanket he had pulled up close. Sage was sleeping on his side facing the couch with one arm curled under his pillow.

Mia looked back over the group, wondering where Rowen could be. Surely if his pals were having some sort of a "sleepover" in the living room, he couldn't be far away. She placed her hands on the couch and leaned over a little. She whispered a quiet 'Ahh' at the sight.

Fast asleep on the couch together were Emily and Rowen. The Strata bearer was lying flat on his back with a big pillow propping up his head and his arms were wrapped snugly around Emily. The younger woman had her head nestled underneath Rowen's chin and had a piece of Rowen's shirt clutched tightly in her hand.

Mia's smile morphed into a frown when she noticed a fresh bandage wrapped around Emily's other hand. She shrugged. Maybe Emily had gotten too close to the fire pit on her camping trip.

Mia walked around the side of the couch, carefully stepping around White Blaze who lay between Sage and the couch. Reaching down, she pulled up the blanket that had slipped down from the two sleeping young adults.

The older woman moved towards the stairs and up to her bedroom. She got ready for bed and went fast to sleep. She would ask the boys about their journey to the dynasty in the morning.

END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN

**Just one more chapter to go, everyone! Then I can start posting the first few chapters to the sequel.**


	15. Chapter 15

**RAMBO112:** Great review! Here's the update!

**Vampire Ronin:** Almost perfect way to end it; two short chapters. Here is the final chapter of LSBT. Ooooh, that sounds fun! I haven't been to Chicago in years. I am hoping by the end of the week to have the first chapter of the sequel up.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Readers! Here is the final chapter of "Little Sister, Big Trouble!" I intend to post the first chapter of the sequel by the end of this week. I'm hoping for lots more reviews on the sequel. I LOVE REVIEWS!**

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"AHHH!"

Mia's eyes shot open and she jerked up right. She listened but didn't hear anything. She thought maybe the loud screech had been screeching car tires from the nearby road or an owl outside her window. Suddenly, she heard the sound again.

"Oh my God," she whispered as she threw off the covers and jumped up.

Now that she was more awake, she identified the sound as a woman's scream. Mia quickly threw a robe on over her nightclothes before dashing out the door. She looked over the railing into the living room.

The living room lights were on, but dimmed. Sage and Rowen were sitting on the couch with Emily who had her face buried in Rowen's shirt. The kitchen light was also on and she could hear someone moving around. Mia instantly thought that Emily had had a night terror. A nightmare wouldn't have produced such a heart wrenching sound.

"Mia?"

Mia turned to see Ryo stepping out of the hall bathroom with a wet washcloth in hand.

"When did you get back in?" Ryo asked.

"Last night. What's going on?" Mia said.

Ryo started to answer, but was cut off by Sage calling for him. He motioned for Mia to follow him as he headed for the stairs.

"Emily decided not to go camping and went home instead. But she never made it home," Ryo said, walking down the stairs.

He jogged the last few steps and over to the couch. He handed the washcloth to Sage who moved Emily's hair to the side to lay the cold washcloth on the back of her neck. Emily's only indication of an awareness of anything was to jump slightly at the cold feeling touching the back of her neck.

Rowen was hugging her tightly and had his head hidden between the couch and her head. He was whispering softly in her ear. It was obvious to Mia that Emily was in great distress over something.

"What happened?" Mia asked.

A crash from the kitchen drew her attention away from the young woman. Rather than answer

her question, Sage softly asked Mia if she could go help Cye and Kento in the kitchen. Confused, Mia went into the kitchen where she found another odd sight.

Cye was cleaning up the broken pieces of a vase and gathering up the flowers that had been in it. Kento was sitting at the table with his head down in his arms. There was a kettle sitting on the stove and a cup was next to it on the counter.

"Mia? When did you ge-,"

"I got in last night. What happened to Emily?" she demanded, her patience starting to run thin.

"I mfwww to smapfle ter," Kento mumbled.

His best friend let out a sigh as he walked over to lay a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault, Kento. You didn't mean to startle her. None of us knew how she would react that way," he tried to reassure him.

Kento jerked away and buried his head even further into himself. It reminded Mia briefly of a turtle. Cye sighed but turned to face Mia. His face was full of sorrow and worry. Mia wished she understood what was going on.

"Emily was attacked in the park about a mile away from here. It was the warlords." Mia gasped. "She tried to get away, but they caught her at the road. They took her into the dynasty."

Mia brought a hand up to her mouth as she fumbled to take a seat at the kitchen table. The _warlords_. Had _taken_. Emily?! No wonder the ronins had gone into the dynasty. Cye drew in and let out a deep breath before continuing.

"They held her captive for a little over a week. We didn't suspect anything was wrong. Emily let her friends know she wasn't going camping, but she was caught in the middle of sending a text to Sage."

"What they do to her?" Mia asked after she found her voice.

Suddenly, Kento's voice filled the kitchen.

"They _tortured_ her! She's just barely old enough to drive and those…_scumbags_ tossed her around like a ragdoll. They poisoned her, healed her and then did it all over again! They wouldn't even let her rest. They sent her nightmares and night terrors!" Kento exclaimed without raising his voice too high.

Mia reached out a hand to touch Kento's arm. This time, he didn't pull away like he had from Cye. Steam started pouring out of the kettle which Cye left them to take care of. Kento closed his eyes for a few quiet moments before opening them and looking at Mia. She could clearly see the red in his eyes that revealed the fact he had been crying.

"We only figured everything out the other day. We went into the dynasty to find her and bring her back. She got away from the warlords and met up with us. We split up with Rowen bringing her back here. Ryo, Sage, Cye and me took on the warlords, but they overwhelmed us. Then they

went after Ro and Emily.

"We woke up in the dynasty. They had us chained to a wall. We didn't know where Emily or the warlords were. Talpa wasn't even around. Then we heard screaming."

Kento struggled for his next words as he swallowed. Cye brought over a cup of steaming hot tea for him and Mia. He patted Kento on the shoulder before leaving the kitchen with a cup of tea in hand.

"It was Emily," Mia said as more of a statement than a question.

Kento nodded.

"Sage was able to link to Emily through some sort of bond they have. Kind of like our armors. When Sekhmet and Dais caught up to Rowen and Emily, Sekhmet cut Emily really bad on her hand. Sage said he was trying to take the poison out of her hand. It was _really_ painful for her. Dais and Cale prevented her from doing anything. I doubt they even gave her something to numb the pain."

Mia didn't even try to imagine how painful that must have been for Emily. Kento proceeded to tell her everything that happened from Talpa's appearance to Ryo bolting towards Emily and the white light.

"What was the light coming from and what happened after that?" Mia asked as they walked out of the kitchen to join the others.

The others had apparently managed to calm Emily down from her panic attack. Rowen was slightly propped up on the end of the couch with Emily laying her back against his chest. He had his arms around her and held her hands loosely in his. The others were sitting around the couch with a safe, but close distance to the two.

Kento shrugged in response to Mia's question. "The light was too bright. I couldn't see anything."

Ryo looked up from his perch on the arm of the other end of the couch. He pointed out that most everyone in the throne room had been blinded.

"Except me, Emily and Talpa. I didn't think I would get to Emily in time. I summoned the Inferno without thinking. _Gods, I could have burned her._"

/…/

**Ryo felt the draw of the other armors as he ran towards Emily.**

"**Armor of the Inferno!"**

**A white light enveloped him as the power of the armors connected from their bearers to him. Wildfire left him as Inferno appeared with a swirl of fire. He felt the armors from the warlords join the ronin armors. With the added boost of power, Ryo reached Emily in a matter of seconds.**

**I hope she has enough power from the armors to withstand the heat, Ryo thought worriedly.**

**He threw his arms around Emily and hugged her close to his chest. He urged the Inferno to incase Emily in a healing heat to protect her from the overlord. Ryo was so thankful when Emily didn't start screaming from the intense heat. It appeared she had been bluffing about returning the armor power to them.**

"**Nothing can stop me, Ryo of the Wildfire! Without the Swords of Fervor, you cannot protect anyone!"**

**Ryo braced himself as lightning started shocking both him and Emily. She let out a scream, causing Ryo to pull her closer and force most of Talpa's attack to strike him. Talpa laughed as the two took the full force of his attack.**

**Ryo glared. He knew he couldn't move from the attack with Emily. If he did, it would hit the others. Talpa had to have known this which is why he didn't go for the others.**

**Emily would never forgive me or herself if I let that happen, Ryo thought.**

**He wished with all his might that White Blaze was there, but he had no clue where the great tiger was. Suddenly, Emily reached her hands forward to touch his armor.**

**[Ryo, let the Inferno draw the extra energy from me!]**

**The young man was taken aback by the mental cry, but felt a large source of energy enter his armor. Fire swirled around them in a protective vortex, blocking Talpa's attack out.**

"**You cannot defeat me! The armors belong to me!"**

**The fire around them formed the large shape of a phoenix. The fire engulfed Talpa and caused a large explosion. The explosion blew out the walls and filled the room with a bright light.**

/…/

"Somehow we managed to transport ourselves out of the nether realm and we brought Emily back here," Ryo finished.

"So Talpa's really gone?" Mia asked.

"I certainly hope so," mumbled a sleepy voice.

All eyes fell on Emily. Her eyes were open, but they were bloodshot and her face looked exhausted. She looked up sleepily at Mia.

"Ryo fried that demon good. He won't be coming back," Emily chuckled softly.

The ronins all smiled. From his spot on the floor, Sage reached forward to gently pat Emily's arm. Emily shifted her gaze down to her brother so the two could share a smile.

"The nightmare is over, Em. Get some rest," he murmured.

Emily's soft smile reminded Mia of a sick child in a hospital. Separating her hand from Rowen's, Emily took Sage's hand and placed a soft kiss on the back of it. Then she carefully rolled on her side to get more comfortable. Rowen moved his arms to accommodate her.

"You're the best older brother *yawn* I could ask for," Emily mumbled.

She tucked her head under Rowen's chin and closed her eyes. She let out a deep sigh before relaxing against her boyfriend.

Mia silently awed at the glowing smile on Sage's face. He chuckled softly as he stared at his sister, relieved to have her back and all in one piece.

"Little sisters," he mumbled. "_Big_ trouble."

THE END


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